UCSB  LIBRAR      a  000807352  0 


ARTOTVPt,    E.  8IERSTADT,     N. 


ADDRESSES 


COMMEMORATIVE  OF 


GEORGE  HAMMELL  COOK,  Pli.D.,LL.D., 


PROFESSOR  OF 


Geology  and  Agriculture  in  Rutgers  College, 


DELIVERED   BEFORE  THE 


Trustees,  Faculty,  Alumni,  Students  and 
Friends  of  the  College, 

June  17,   1890. 

TOGETHER  WITH 

A  Biographical  Sketch  read  by  request 

BEFORE   the   NeW  JeRSEY   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  AT 

Trenton,  January  28,  1890. 


Newark,  N.  J. 

Advertiser  Printing  House, 

1891. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/addressescommemoOOrutgiala' 


GEORGE    H.    COOK. 

STATE    GEOLOGIST    OF    NEW   JERSEY — DIRECTOR   OF   THE    AGRI- 
CULTURAL  EXPERIMENT    STATION    OF    NEW    JERSEY 

PROFESSOR   OF  GEOLOGY  AND   AGRICULTURE 
IN    RUTGERS    COLLEGE.     • 

BY    JAMES    NEILSON. 

y^  EORGE  H.  COOK,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  State  Geologist  of 
New  Jersey,  Director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station  of  the  State,  Vice-President  of  Rutgers  College 
and  its  Professor  of  Geology  and  Agriculture,  died  at  his 
residence  in  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  Sunday,  Sep- 
tember 22d,  1889.  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  and  as  he 
-wished  to  die,  in  the  active  discharge  of  his  duties. 

George  Hammell  Cook  was  born  at  Hanover,  Morris 
County,  New  Jersey,  on  January  the  5th,  1818.  He  was 
the  third  son  of  John  Cook  and  his  wife  Sarah  Munn. 
His  ancestors  on  the  male  side  came  from  England  in 
J640  to  Lynn,  Massachusetts.  They  soon  after  removed 
to  Southampton,  Long  Island,  and  thence  to  Hanoveir, 
New  Jersey,  where  their  house,  the  home  of  several  gen- 
erations, still  stands.  It  was  built  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  years  ago,  and  is  still  owned  by  Doctor 
Cook's  brother.  An  old  record  of  a  will  dated  1751, 
.states  that  John  Williams  gives  it  to  his  daughter,  Mary 
Oook,  wife  of  Ellis  Cook. 

Lieutenant-Colonel    Ellis   Cook,   of    Hanover,   Morris 


County,  son  of  the  last  named  [born  1732  and  died  1797], 
and  the  great-grandfather  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
was  one  of  the  prominent  men  of  the  State  during  and 
after  the  Revolution.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Commit- 
tee of  Correspondence,  and  afterward  of  the  Legislature, 
where  he  was  one  of  the  active  men,  always  a  member  of 
the  great  committees.  He  was  appointed  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  of  the  Morris  Militia,  and  was  a  member  of  the 
Provincial  Congress  of  1776,  which  organized  the  State 
by  its  constitution.  Where  important  work  was  to  be 
done,  there,  like  his  distinguished  great-grandson,  we 
find  him  quietly  doing  it. 

Doctor  Cook  was  married  on  March  26th,  1846,  to  Mary 
Halsey  Thomas.  Mrs.  Cook,  two  sons  and  two  daughters 
survive. 

As  a  boy  Doctor  Cook  attended  the  country  school  of 
his  native  town.  In  1836  he  served  on  the  survey  for  the 
Morris  and  Essex  Railroad,  and  then  on  that  of  the  Cats- 
kill  and  Canajoharie  road.  In  December,  1838,  he  entered 
the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute  at  Troy,  New  York, 
and  graduated  thence  with  the  degree  of  C.  E.  in  1839. 
He  there  acquired,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  famous 
teacher,  Amos  Eaton,  that  love  for  the  natural  sciences 
which  distinguished  him,  and  which  has  borne  fruit  to 
the  great  advantage  of  his  native  State  and  of  a  wide 
circle  of  friends  and  pupils — a  notable  instance  of  the 
power  and  far-reaching  influence  of  the  enthusiastic  and 
magnetic  teacher.  After  graduation.  Doctor  Cook  was 
employed  as  a  tutor,  then  as  adjunct  professor,  and  from 
1842  to  1846  as  senior  professor  in  the  Institute. 

In  1846  he  removed  to  Albany,  where  for  two  years  he 
was  engaged  in  business,  and  from  1848  to  185 1  was  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  in  the 
Albany  Academy,  and  from  1851  to  1853  he  was  Principal 
of  the  Academy.     In  1852  he  was  sent  to  Europe  by  the 


State  of  New  York,  to  study  the  salt  deposits  for  the 
benefit  of  those  of  Onondaga  County. 

In  1853  he  was  called  to  the  Chair  of  Chemistry  and 
Natural  Sciences  in  Rutgers  College,  at  New  Brunswick, 
and  retained  his  connection  with  the  College  during  his 
life.  He  had  already  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy  from  the  University  of  New  York,  and  in  1865 
Union  College  conferred  upon  him  that  of  Doctor  of 
Laws. 

In  1854  he  was  appointed  Assistant  Geologist  of  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  and  was  in  charge  of  the  southern 
division  of  the  State  for  three  years.  At  this  time  he 
made  reports  on  the  green-sand  marl  beds,  the  clay  beds 
and  on  the  coast  changes.  The  fact  of  the  subsidence  of 
the  coast,  and  the  stratigraphical  relations  of  the  marl 
beds  were  discovered  by  him  at  this  early  day.  The 
geological  survey  was  suspended  from  1856  till  1863, 
when  the  Legislature  put  the  property  of  the  survey  in 
his  charge,  and  in  1864  he  was  made  State  Geologist  by 
act  of  the  Legislature,  which  by  nearly  unanimous  votes 
in  1872,  1876,  1880  and  1885  continued  the  survey  with 
Doctor  Cook   at  its  head. 

In  1864  Doctor  Cook  used  his  influence  successfully  to 
connect  the  "  State  College  for  the  Promotion  of  Agricul- 
ture and  Mechanic  Arts "  with  Rutgers  College,  and  he 
was  made  Vice-President  of  the  combined  institution. 
In  1873  he  lent  his  aid  in  the  formation  of  the  State 
Board  of  Agriculture,  and  was  ever  after  a  member  of 
its  Executive   Committee. 

In  1877,  at  the  Wilkesbarre  Meeting  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers  he  read  a  paper  on  "The 
Southern  Limit  of  the  Last  Glacial  Drift  across  New 
Jersey  and  the  Adjacent  Parts  of  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylvania." He  was  one  of  the  first  to  discover  the  exist- 
ence of  a  great  terminal   moraine  in  the  eastern  United 


States;  a  description  of  which  appears  in  the  reports  of 
the  survey  for  1877  and  1878. 

The  geological  survey  under  Doctor  Cook's  manage- 
ment has  been  the  medium  through  which  the  closest 
scientific  research  has  been  applied  to  the  practical  needs 
of  the  State,  The  knowledge  thus  communicated  has 
led  to  the  development  of  the  clays,  of  the  iron  and  zinc,, 
the  soils,  the  swamp  lands,  water  supply,  and  many  other 
interests.  One  of  the  most  important  achievements  of 
the  survey  has  been  the  beautiful  series  of  twenty  maps 
on  the  scale  of  one  mile  to  an  inch,  topographical,  geo- 
logical and  hypsometric,  executed  with  the  last  degree  of 
accuracy  and  care,  and  just  completed  before  Doctor 
Cook's  death.  They  are  said  by  competent  judges  to  be 
the  best  published  by  the  different  States.  They  have 
been  adopted  by  the  United  States  geological  survey,  and 
indeed,[are  considered  the  best  which  exist. 

Doctor  Cook's  interest  in  popular  education  was  untir- 
ing; his  efforts  in  that  direction  extended  throughout  his 
life,  and  were  wise  and  comprehensive.  He  was  early 
impressed  with  the  great  importance  of  agricultural  ex- 
periment stations,  and  examined  carefully  into  their 
organization  and  working,  visiting  the  more  prominent 
stations  in  Germany,  France,  Italy,  Sweden,  Norway  and 
England  in  1870,  and  again  in  1878,  while  in  Europe  as  a 
delegate  to  the  Congress  of  Geologists  at  the  Paris  Ex- 
hibition. 

During  the  session  of  1879  he  brought  the  subject  be- 
fore the  New  Jersey  Legislature,  and  with  his  usual  per- 
severance again  in  1880,  when,  owing  to  the  confidence 
of  the  State  Government  in  him,  the  Station  of  New 
Jersey  was  established.  He  was  appointed  its  Director,, 
and  under  his  wise  management  it  has  obtained  the  con- 
fidence of  the  farmers  in  a  remarkable  degree;  it  has  been 
of  the  greatest  possible  service  to  the  agricultural  inter- 


ests  of  the  State,  and  its  bulletins  have  been  sought 
throughout  the  country. 

While  attending  the  recent  annual  convention  of  ex- 
periment stations  and  agricultural  colleges  at  Washington, 
the  delegation  from  the  New  Jersey  Stations  were  greatly 
impressed  with  the  rem.arkable  foresight  shown  by  Doctor 
Cook  in  the  many  lines  of  work  and  policy  not  adopted 
elsewhere,  which  were  there  considered,  in  the  light  of 
events,  wise  for  the  future,  but  which  he  'had  already 
inaugurated  in  the  college  and  Station  here,  in  numerous 
instances,  since  many  years.  Although  the  stations  of 
Connecticut  and  North  Carolina  were  established  a  short 
time  before  the  one  in  New  Jersey  (the  first  in  1875,  the 
second  in  1877,  and  the  last  in  1880),  Doctor  Cook 
already  in  1870  had  thoroughly  investigated  the  sub- 
ject in  Europe  and  had  planned  the  work  to  be  done. 
The  passage  by  Congress  of  the  Act  of  1887,  creating 
the  system  of  stations  in  every  State,  was  largely  due 
to  his  efforts. 

His  duties  as  Professor  of  Agriculture  and  Director  of 
the  Experiment  Station  led  to  the  delivery  of  lectures  on 
agriculture  in  every  part  of  the  State.  In  this  way  his 
personality  impressed  itself  in  every  direction.  Some  one 
said,  while  sadly  referring  to  his  death,  "  Who  now  will 
tell  us  what  we  want  to  know?"  He  devoted  much  re- 
search to  ascertain  the  best  methods  of  water  supply  for 
cities,  and  early  pointed  out  the  danger  of  supply  from 
wells  and  polluted  streams.  He  induced  the  boring  of 
artesian  wells  to  supply  the  sea-coast  resorts,  and  exe- 
cuted surveys  and  maps  of  the  watershed  of  Northern 
New  Jersey. 

He  took  an  active  interest  in  the  introduction  of  water 
into  New  Brunswick  and  served  for  more  than  fifteen 
years  as  a  member  of  its  Water  Board.  He  was  among^ 
the  first  if  not  the  first  to  analyze  the  well  waters,  and  to 


8 

show  the  people  of  his  town,  that  they  were  unfit  for 
drinking. 

He  planned  the  drainage  of  the  Pequest  and  upper 
Passaic  meadows  and  accomplished  the  first  and  saw 
work  begun  upon  the  last,  thus  converting  worthless  and 
unhealthy  regions  into  fertile  and  salubrious  fields.  He 
brought  within  the  scope  of  the  geological  survey,  the 
botany  and  climatology  of  the  State,  and  the  development 
of  soils,  and  called  attention  to  the  mild  and  healthful 
climate  of  the  pine  lands  and  the  sea  coast,  and  made 
known  the  agricultural  value  of  the  light  soils.  He  also 
organized  the  New  Jersey  weather  service. 

By  reason  of  his  knowledge  of  the  changes  of  coast 
level,  as  well  as  of  the  history  of  the  controversy.  Doctor 
Cook  rendered  valuable  service  as  a  member  of  the  com- 
mission for  the  determination  of  the  boundary  between 
New  York  and  New  Jersey, 

He  was  interested  in  historical  investigation.  He 
knew  what  people  had  done,  and  were  doing,  and  all  about 
them  ;  every  locality  for  him  was  teeming  with  historical 
association.  He  manifested  a  lively  interest  in  the  His- 
torical Society  of  New  Jersey,  and  in  the  Historical  Club 
at  New  Brunswick,  and  was  constantly  accumulating 
books  and  documents  relating  to  Jersey  history. 

He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New  Brunswick 
Free  Library,  and  a  member  of  its  Board  of  Managers 
until  his  death.  He  often  visited  the  library  in  the  even- 
ing, and,  pleased  at  seeing  the  rooms  filled  with  readers, 
would  express  his  conviction,  that  the  library  was  accom- 
plishing more  for  the  citizens  of  the  town  than  any  other 
public  institution. 

In  1870  and  again  in  1878  the  writer  had  the  privilege 
of  traveling  in  Europe  with  Doctor  Cook.  It  was  cer- 
tainly like  being  admitted  to  a  new  world.  He  was  at 
home  on  so  many  subjects,  and  with  all  sorts  of  people, 


and  had  not  only  a  general  and  broad  view  but  technical 
and  detailed  information,  which  he  delighted  to  commu- 
nicate, in  the  simplest  and  most  interesting  manner.  He 
would  often  spend  whole  days,  and  travel  long  distances 
without  accomplisliing  much  ;  this  in  no  way  discouraged 
him — he  would  say,  "  that  is  to  be  expected  ;  another  day 
we  shall  accomplish  more  than  we  anticipate,  and  so  the 
loss  and  gain  will  be  equalized."  He  had  a  remarkable 
facility  for  drawing  others  out  ;  after  stating  in  a  general 
way  the  subject  on  which  he  wished  information  he  would 
let  his  informant  tell  his  story  in  his  own  way,  and  at 
length,  not  interrupting  or  checking  him  because  he 
might  wander,  or  give  unimportant  or  irrelevant  facts — 
after  he  had  finished,  he  might  ask  further  questions.  He 
said  talking  was  necessary  for  the  transaction  of  business, 
and  that  the  time  consumed  was  part  of  its  legitimate 
cost.  In  this  way,  while  gaining  large  information  in  his 
own  lines,  he  won  the  confidence  of  men,  and  received  a 
vast  fund  of  information  on  every  conceivable  subject, 
which  was  carefully  entered  in  his  note  book.  These  note 
books  must  be  a  perfect  treasure-house ;  he  always  had 
one  in  his  pocket,  and  could  refer  to  what  he  wanted. 
Indeed,  he  made  it  his  business  to  obtain  information 
general,  as  well  as  specific,  and  after  a  long  day  spent  in 
travel  and  investigation,  the  evening  would  be  spent  in 
writing  up  his  notes  and  planning  for  another  busy  day, 
and  the  morning,  before  others  were  awake,  in  examining 
maps  and  laying  out  routes. 

At  home  he  carried  on  with  energy  and  success  as  we 
have  seen,  not  only  the  geological  survey,  which  alone 
would  have  overtasked  the  powers  of  most  men,  but  also 
the  agricultural  experiment  stations  and  his  college  work. 
To  all  this  he  added  the  creation  and  constant  care  of  the 
geological  museum  of  Rutgers  College.  The  year  before 
his  death  he  gave  the  summer,  which  others  were  spend- 


lO 

ing  in  needed  vacation,  to  supervising  the  erection  of  the 
new  Laboratory  for  the  experiment  stations,  in  addition 
to  all  the  rest — and  this  when  past  the  age  of  seventy. 
Change  of  occupation,  he  often  said,  was  sufficient  rest. 
He  did  not  hesitate  to  assume  responsibility  when  his 
public  work  required  it. 

To  illustrate  Doctor  Cook's  devotion  to  the  public 
welfare,  to  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  pecuniary  gain,  it 
should  be  mentioned  that,  when  as  State  Geologist  he 
was  discovering  the  valuable  clays  underlying  much  of 
Middlesex  County  as  well  as  other  parts  of  the  State,  it 
was  proposed  that  he  should  drop  the  survey,  and  form  a 
partnership  with  gentlemen  of  great  wealth,  to  mine  and. 
sell  the  clays  ;  he  declined  the  offer,  which  must  have  led 
to  fortune,  preferring  that  the  knowledge  should  be  pub- 
lic property. 

Again,  when  the  State  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 
was  established  in  1880,  in  order  that  the  work  should  not 
be  hampered  by  even  a  suspicion  of  self-seeking  (although 
he  was  the  only  man  thought  of  for  director,  or  who  could 
successfully  organize  it),  he  insisted  that  a  sum  equal  to 
his  salary  as  such  director  should  be  deducted  from  his 
salary  as  State  Geologist,  and  then  proceeded  cheerfully 
to  do  work  double  in  intensity  if  not  in  time. 

Doctor  Cook  considered  it  fundamental,  that  under- 
takings should  be  finished^  and  constantly  warned  his 
pupils  and  friends  against  the  habit  of  going  from  one 
thing  to  another,  leaving  work  incomplete.  He  often  in 
the  last  years  expressed  his  uneasiness  lest  he  should  not 
be  permitted  to  finish  his  own  works,  which  from  their 
nature  extended  over  years.  It  is  a  source  of  satisfaction 
to  his  friends,  and  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  State, 
that  he  did  live  to  see  his  work  substantially  completed. 
His  labors  and  attainments  extended  his  fame  not  only 
throughout  the  United    States,  but  among  the   scientific 


II 

men  of  Europe.  He  was  a  member  of  numerous  learned 
societies  ;  among  others,  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society 
of  Sweden  ;  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  (of  which  he  was  Vice-President  in  1887) 
of  the  American  Philosophical  Society ;  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Science  of  Philadelphia  ;  the  American  Institute 
of  Mining  Engineers,  and  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences.  He  was  also  Surveyor-General  for  the  "Pro- 
prietors of  East  Jersey." 

He  was  a  member  and  for  a  long  time  an  elder  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  always  in  his  seat  on  Sunday  ;  and  for 
many  years  this  busy  man  found  time  to  conduct  a  Bible 
class.  His  religion  was  carried  into  every  hour's  occupa- 
tion, as  is  shown  by  the  record  of  his  life.  He  did  not 
talk  much  about  religion,  he  lived  it.  He  loved  God — 
that  is,  he  kept  His  commandments  ;  he  loved  his  neigh- 
bor as  himself;  he  was  not  slothful  in  business  ;  he  did 
what  his  hand  found  to  do  with  all  his  might ; — a  prac- 
tical religion,  and  real,  and  were  it  generally  observed, 
the  world  need  not  wait  for  a  millennium,  nor  look  to  a 
future  existence  alone  for  happiness. 

His  was  a  noble  life — utterly  unselfish,  devoted  to  the 
public  welfare  on  the  wisest  and  broadest  lines.  His 
great  scientific  attainments,  his  wisdom,  good  judgment 
and  marvelous  powers  of  observation  and  work,  were 
employed  during  a  long  life  in  inaugurating  and  carrying 
through  great  public  enterprises,  such  as  have  already 
made  life  brighter  and  fuller  to  multitudes.  He  never 
considered  his  own  reputation  or  ease  or  advantage.  He 
often'  said  in  'advising  young  men,  "  I  have  always  been 
doing  work  which  no  one  else  would  do."  He  was  simple 
and  unassuming.  His  friendships  and  attachments  were 
strong.  His  disinterestedness  and  wisdom  were  widely 
recognized.  Probably  no  man  of  his  generation  has  so 
commanded   the   public  confidence  of  New  Jersey.      He 


12 

was  known  and  looked  up  to  by  all  classes  from  one  end 
of  the  State  to  the  other,  and  far  beyond  its  boundaries. 
His  versatility  was  remarkable  and  his  successful  efforts 
for  the  development  of  the  State  were  in  most  varied 
channels.  He  was  one  of  the  happiest  of  men,  cheerful, 
even  tempered,  overflowing  with  knowledge  and  informa- 
tion, delightful  in  conversation  and  admirable  in  every 
relation,  loved  and  honored  throughout  his  State,  and 
among  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances  in  this 
and  other  lands.  His  life  is  a  model  for  all,  which  may 
well  be  followed.  A  great  and  good  man  has  passed 
away. 


DOCTOR    COOK    AS    A    CITIZEN. 

BY  HON.  ABRAM  S.  HEWITT. 

T^HE  State  of  New  Jersey  is  fortunate  in  being  a  small 
State.  It  has  been  more  fortunate,  up  to  a  recent 
period,  in  being  largely  an  agricultural  State.  There  has 
been  a  certain  family  and  social  feeling  pervading  this 
State  which  is  unique.  I  have  known  the  Legislature  and 
its  citizens  pretty  well  for  about  fifty  years,  and  I  have 
found  that  it  is  the  most  Democratic  community  in  the 
world.  This  is  my  judgment.  The  Legislature  represents 
more  closely  and  more  nearly  the  opinions  and  interests  of 
its  inhabitants  than  any  other  political  organization  which 
has  ever  come  under  my  personal  observation. 

It  is  true  that  in  ancient  Greece,  particularly  in  Athens, 
where  the  people  come  together  in  mass-meeting  and  there 
were  no  representatives,  we  have  an  example  of  a  pure 
Democracy,  which  always  suggested  to  me  what  I  have 
during  my  life  observed  to  be  the  fact  in  New  Jersey. 
Hence,  in  this  State,  there  is  a  very  close  supervision  of 
the  expenditure  of*  money,  and,  forty  years  ago,  there  was 
a  great  indisposition  to  expend  any  public  money,  for  any 
purpose  except  the  ordinary  conduct  of  government.  The 
State,  occupying  its  peculiar  position,  between  the  two 
great  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  was  to  a 
large  extent  influenced  in  its  development  by  the  overflow 
of  population,  wealth  and  industry  from  the  neighboring 
States.     Of  its  own  resources  it  knew  but  little,  and  it  is  a 


14 

very  suggestive  fact  that  up  to  1836,  a  little  over  fifty  years 
ago,  nothing  was  known  of  the  geology  of  this  State.  In 
the  excitement  of  that  speculative  era,  some  one  proposed 
that  Professor  H,  D.  Rogers  should  be  employed  to  make 
a  survey  of  the  State,  and  find  out  what  kind  of  an  inher- 
itance had  come  down  to  them  from  their  fathers,  and  it 
is  a  curious  commentary  that  Professor  Rogers  made  what 
is  a  very  remarkable  survey,  and  his  compensation  for  the 
report  which  gave  us  the  first  knowledge  of  the  geology 
of  this  State  was  the  modest  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars. 
It  was  probably  the  best  investment  that  ever  was  made 
by  the  people  of  New  Jersey, 

It  insured  the  development  of  the  mineral  resources, 
particularly  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State,  upon  a 
larger  scale  than  had  ever  been  possible  before,  but  the 
State  contented  itself  with  this  knowledge  until  about 
1856,  when  Doctor  Kitchell  revived  the  public  interest  in 
the  geological  structure  of  the  State  and  the  mineral 
resources  which  it  might  contain.  With  considerable 
effort,  in  which  some  of  the  older  gentlemen  whom  I  see 
here  present  must  have  participated,  the  Legislature  were 
induced  to  organize  a  survey,  of  which  Doctor  Kitchell 
was  the  head.  He  chose  for  his  first  assistant  a  young 
man  little  known  to  the  people  of  this  State,  and  whom, 
up  to  that  time,  I  had  never  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing. 

When  Doctor  Kitchell  died,  after  having  made  three 
annual  reports,  one  of  which  related  to  the  marls  and 
green  sands  of  New  Jersey,  the  survey  fell  into,  I  was 
going  to  say,  ''innocuous  desuetude."  At  any  rate,  it  was 
abandoned.  But  the  young  man  who  had  acted  as  the 
first  assistant  never  lost  sight  of  the  importance  of  contin- 
uing and  completing  the  survey.  He  came  to  me  and 
asked  whether  some  way  could  not  be  made  to  revive  the 
interest  in  the  matter,  and  I  was  satisfied,  after  talking 
with  him,   that   there  was  only   one   possible   chance    of 


15 

getting  the  money  appropriated  and  getting  the  survey 
reestablished.  That  was  that  that  young  man  himself 
should  go  to  the  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  let  them 
see  what  manner  of  man  he  was,  and  tell  them  what  inter- 
ests the  people  of  this  State  had  in  the  economic  side  of 
the  question,  leaving  the  scientific  and  higher  portion  of 
the  subject  to  take  care  of  itself.  That  man  was  George 
n.  Cook,  then  a  professor  in  Rutgers,  with  a  previous 
record  as  a  teacher  in  the  Troy  Polytechnic  Institute.  I 
aided  him  to  some  extent,  introducing  him  to  the  mem- 
bers whom  I  knew.  The  result  was  the  passage  of  the  act, 
in  1864,  by  which  the  Geological  Survey  was  revived,  and 
the  singular  compliment  paid  to  Doctor  Cook  of  having 
him  named  in  the  Act,  as  the  Geologist  who  was  to  super- 
intend its  operation.  He  was  named  because  of  the  uni- 
versal conviction  that  if  he  would  undertake  the  work,  it 
would  not  only  be  well,  but  be  honestly  done.  There  was 
not  a  single  vote  in  opposition  to  this  measure,  and  the 
appropriation  was  made.  If  I  remember  rightly,  the 
appropriation  was  eight  thousand  dollars,  possibly  it  was 
five  thousand,  but  I  think  it  was  eight  thousand  dollars. 

A  Board  of  Commissioners  was  established  from  each 
congressional  district.  There  were  five  districts.  The 
original  commissioners  are  now  dead,  all  except  four.  I 
believe  the  other  three,  with  myself,  are  now  in  this  room. 
The  survey  was  organized  promptly,  and  Doctor  Cook, 
anxious  to  have  the  work  done,  refused  to  receive  any 
compensation  for  his  personal  services.  He  was  finally 
persuaded  by  the  Commissioners  to  take  a  small  sum — 
very  small,  I  think  it  was  eight  hundred  dollars — out  of 
the  appropriation,  because  we  knew  it  involved  expenses 
as  well  as  sacrifices,  and  the  survey  went  on  for  four  years, 
when  what  was  known  as  the  final  report  of  1868  was 
finished.  We  became  very  well  acquainted  with  Doctor 
Cook,  I  mean  the  Commissioners.     I  think  of  all  the  men 


i6 

I  ever  knew  he  was  the  least  selfish,  and  the  most  cheerful. 
He  was  literally  a  man  without  guile.  He  loved  this  State 
with  a  rare  devotion.  He  believed  that  small  as  it  was,  it 
had  in  it  all  the  elements  of  wealth  and  prosperity,  and  of 
political  greatness,  and  I  remember  the  pride  with  which 
he  turned  to  the  result  of  the  census  of  i860,  which 
showed  that  the  agricultural  value  of  the  land  in  the  State 
of  New  Jersey  had  increased  more  than  that  of  any  other 
State  in  the  United  States.  He  used  to  speak  of  this  State 
as  a  natural  garden,  as  a  source  of  supply  of  all  the  higher 
articles  of  culture,  not  the  cereals  merely,  but  such  vegeta- 
bles as  supply  the  markets  of  the  great  cities,  and 
especially  of  fruits  and  flowers. 

It  was  his  ambition  to  have  the  people  of  the  State  of 
New  Jersey  understand  their  own  resources  and  possibili- 
ties of  development,  and  I  am  sure  that  if  this  State  has 
held  its  own,  as  it  has,  and  has  advanced  upon  its  condi- 
tion in  i860,  it  is  largely  due  to  the  personal  devotion  and 
the  untiring  industry  of  Doctor  Cook  in  making  known  in 
every  part  of  the  State  the  advantages  which  it  possesses 
and  the  best  directions  in  which  to  encourage  develop- 
ment. Along  the  coast  he  explored  the  marls  and  green 
sands,  and  demonstrated  the  vast,  inexhaustible  fund  of 
fertility  which  nature  has  given  to  this  State  in  the  phos- 
phate deposits  of  that  region.  In  the  central  portion  and 
northern  portion  of  the  State  he  was  careful  to  point  out 
that  there  was  a  large  area  of  the  most  fertile  land  in  the 
world,  made  worthless  by  the  overflow  of  the  back  waters 
of  the  Pequest  and  Passaic  rivers.  Next  he  pointed  out 
the  enormous  value  of  the  clays  of  New  Jersey,  which  are 
destined  to  make  it  the  center  of  the  production  of  pot- 
tery of  every  kind.  The  product  of  that  business  in  this 
State  is  now  in  advance  of  any  other,  in  the  perfection  and 
quantity  of  the  pottery  ware.  This  is  entirely  due  to 
Doctor  Cook's  careful  work  and  the  manner  in  which  he 


^7 

made  these  resources  known,  not  only  to  the  people  of  the 
State,  but  to  others  outside,  who  would  desire  to  make  use 
of  them  in  the  investment  of  capital. 

Foreseeing  that  his  State  must  be  the  center  of  a  dense 
population,  occupying  in  this  country  somewhat  the  same 
position  that  Belgium  does  in  Europe;  foreseeing  that  it 
would  require  not  only  pure  air,  but  pure  water  to  main- 
tain a  vast  population  such  as  must  grow  up  within  its 
borders,  he  carefully  measured  the  sources  of  water  supply 
which  must  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  development, 
industrial  and  social,  and  he  has  pointed  out  that  there  is 
no  region  north  of  the  Potomac  river,  that  is  to  say  be- 
tween Washington  and  Maine,  in  which  there  is  so  large  a 
supply  of  pure  water  as  in  the  region  which  is  occupied 
by  the  northerly  portion  of  the  State  between  New  Bruns- 
wick and  the  Hudson  river.  The  watershed  of  that  region 
is  twice  as  large  as  the  watershed  upon  which  New  York 
depends  for  its  supply — the  Croton  watershed. 

In  the  course  of  one  or  two  centuries  the  density  of 
population  will  depend  entirely  upon  the  ability  to  get 
water  to  drink,  and  when  that  time  comes  the  great  growth 
of  that  State  must  be  in  the  region  which  can  be  supplied 
from  the  Passaic  watershed.  All  this  Doctor  Cook  fore- 
saw. He  worked  for  this  generation,  it  is  true,  but  it  was 
less  for  us  than  for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us,  and  I 
predict  that  in  the  future  the  man  whose  name  will  be 
written  down  upon  the  page  of  history  as  the  benefactor 
of  his  State,  and  of  his  time,  will  be  George  H.  Cook. 
The  actual  achievements  of  the  survey  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view  are  not  striking.  Scientific  problems  have 
been  investigated,  scientific  laws  have  been  proven,  and 
many  prejudices  have  been  removed.  The  old  ideas  about 
the  igneous  origin  of  the  metalliferous  formation,  have  been 
destroyed,  but  even  if  Dr.  Cook  had  not  been  in  the  sur- 

2 


i8 

vey,  this  would  have  resulted  from  the  work  of  other  men 
like  Dana  and  Leslie,  and  other  various  geologists,  includ- 
ing the  distinguished  head  of  the  United  States  Geologi- 
cal Survey,  Major  Powell,  who  is  here  to  take  part  in  these 
memorial  exercises,  but  I  am  certain  that  the  State  of 
New  Jersey  would  not  have  had  any  knowledge  worth 
talking  about  of  its  present  resources  and  of  the  mag- 
nificent development  which  awaits  it  in  the  future  if 
Doctor  Cook's  services  had  not  been  secured  for  the 
work  which  he  accomplished.  That  work  lasted  twenty- 
five  years. 

During  all  that  time  Doctor  Cook  went  in  and  out  of  the 
houses  of  this  State,  making  friends  of  every  man,  woman 
and  chi'.d  whom  he  met.  Did  anyone  ever  hear  an  evil 
word  of  him  ?  Did  anyone  ever  hear  a  complaint?  Was 
not  his  praise  in  the  mouth  of  every  intelligent  citizen  of 
this  State  ?  And  the  fact  that  he  was  able  to  go  on  for 
twenty-five  years  backed  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
Legislature  in  the  work  he  was  doing,  and  that  no  other 
man  ever  thought  he  could  do  it  as  well'as  Doctor  Cook, 
that  there  never  was  any  candidate  spoken  of  for  the  place, 
and  that  he  was  served  with  a  loyalty  by  his  distinguished 
assistants,  all  of  whom  have  made  names  for  themselves 
in  the  history  of  science  in  this  country,  and  many  of 
whom  will  be  the  leading  scientific  men  in  the  future,  is 
the  best  possible  commentary  upon  his  career  of  honor, 
usefulness  and  self-sacrifice. 

No  one  of  these  assistants  ever  for  a  moment  thought 
he  could  take  the  place  of  Doctor  Cook,  and  now  that  he 
has  gone,  who  can  know  the  man  that  could  have  taken 
his  place  if  his  work  had  not  been  finished  ?  Yes,  he  went 
up  into  the  mountain,  he  saw  the  promised  land,  he  took 
the  people  of  this  State  with  him  to  the  borders,  but 
he  was   not  permitted   to  enter.     But  his  loyal  band  of 


19 

helpers  will  see  that  that  work  of  which  he  was  able 
only  to  produce  the  first  volume,  and  partly  prepare 
the  second  for  the  press,  that  that  work  will  be  finished, 
and  will  constitute  it  the  monument  which,  as  Doctor 
Raymond  said  in  his  address,  he  has  built  to  the  pub- 
lic good,  and  to  the  benefaction  of  his  kind,  for  ages 
and  ages  to  come. 


DOCTOR   COOK    AS    A   GEOLOGIST. 

BY    MAJ.    J.  W.  POWELL,   PH.D.,  LL.D. 

"  Yet  once  more,  O  ye  laurels,  and  once  more 
Ye  myrtles  brown,  with  ivy  never  sere, 
I  come  to  pluck  your  berries  harsh  and  crude, 
And  with  forced  fingers  rude, 
Shatter  your  leaves  before  the  mellowing  year. 
Bitter  constraint,  and  sad  occasion  dear, 
Compel  me  to  disturb  your  season  due  :" 

One  by  one  the  great  men  depart.  As  they  pass  from 
the  sphere  of  personal  association  through  the  portal  of 
the  grave  into  the  world  of  immortal  influence,  their 
deeds  and  honors  are  recounted  by  those  who  remain. 
When  the  last  entry  has  been  made,  the  book  opened  and 
the  account  rendered,  blessed  is  he  whose  good  deeds 
more  than  balance  his  emoluments,  whose  services  to 
mankind  more  than  equal  the  honors  paid  him  by  man- 
kind, for,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 
Thrice  blessed  is  the  man  whose  life  and  services  we  com- 
memorate today. 

The  generation  now  at  the  zenith  of  life  succeeds  a 
generation  whose  zenith  was  clouded  by  war.  As  the 
great  men  of  that  day  pass  out  through  the  sunset  of  life, 
their  battle-deeds  are  told.  It  is  thus  that  the  mortuary 
ceremonies  of  this  generation  echo  the  clangar  of  charg- 
ing squadrons,  the  shrieking  rattle  of  the  battle-lines,  and 
the  roar  of  batteries. 


21 

Sequestered  from  the  pomp  of  parade,  from  the  roar  of 
funeral  gun,  from  the  cemetery  that  hides  under  marble 
-columns  the  victims  of  battle  strife,  here  in  the  peaceful 
halls  of  learning  we  assemble  to  commemorate  the  life  of 
a  man  whose  ways  were  ''paths  of  peace,"  whose  chariot 
of  progress  through  the  world  bore  no  scythe  of  destruc- 
tion, whose  life  was  wholly  beneficent,  whose  youth  was 
devoted  to  learning,  whose  early  manhood  was  devoted 
to  instruction,  whose  prime  was  devoted  to  research,  and 
whose  old  age  was  devoted  to  the  organization  and  devel- 
opment of  institutions  for  the  increase  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge. 

It  falls  not  to  my  task  to  characterize  the  student  life 
of  George  Hammell  Cook.  That  his  opportunities  for 
training  were  wisely  used  is  abundantly  demonstrated  by 
the  monument  of  success  which  he  unconsciously  reared 
for  himself  in  the  years  of  his  public  activity.  It  is  not 
in  my  province  to  speak  of  his  professorial  life.  The 
scholars  and  public  men  who  were  guided  into  a  higher 
intellectual  life  constitute  a  living  monument  to  his  fidel- 
ity and  genius  as  an  instructor.  It  was  as  a  man  engaged 
in  research  that  I  first  knew  Professor  Cook  and  learned 
to  honor  his  untiring  industry,  his  deep  insight,  and  his 
intellectual  integrity.  The  catalogue  of  his  contributions 
to  science  is  long — too  long  to  be  recounted  here,  for  it 
constitutes  the  annals  of  a  long  life.  Only  a  few  examples 
can  be  used  to  illustrate  the  wealth  of  his  accomplish- 
ments— in  chemistry,  geology,  and  geography. 

In  1854  Doctor  Cook  became  an  assistant  on  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  New  Jersey.  This  was  his  induction  into 
scientific  work.  For  three  years  the  field  of  his  research 
was  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  in  the  marl-beds 
and  amid  the  potter's  clay.  Up  to  that  time  little  atten- 
tion had  been  given  to  these  sources  of  wealth  and  fields 
of  industrial  operations.     While  in  this  field  of  labor  he 


discovered  that  a  thorough  geological  survey  must  be 
based  upon  geography,  and  he  conbtructed  a  topographic 
map  expressly  for  the  representation  of  geologic  struc- 
ture. His  stratigraphic  determinations  were  based  largely 
upon  instrumental  measurements  and  carefully  drawn 
plans  and  profiles  of  the  land  surveys.  Thus  was  inaugu- 
rated in  America  a  system  of  geological  surveying  which 
has  gradually  obtained  ground  until  it  is  practically 
universal.  The  anatomy  of  the  earth  is  exhibited  in  its 
topographic  forms.  Plains,  valleys,  terraces,  hills,  and 
mountains  are  full  of  meaning  to  the  geologist,  for  in 
them  is  revealed  the  deep-seated  structure  of  the  earth 
and  the  history  of  that  struggle  between  the  great  geo- 
logic powers  which  is  forever  in  progress  and  from  the 
throes  of  which  the  continents  are  born. 

The  theater  of  these  early  operations  was  near  the 
coast,  where  the  tides  of  the  Atlantic  ceaselessly  surge  to- 
devour  the  land.  Here  his  trained  eye  observed  phe- 
nomena that  led  to  a  long  system  of  observation  and 
investigation,  by  which  he  ultimately  demonstrated  that 
the  margin  of  the  Coastal  Plain  of  the  Jersey  shore  is 
slowly  subsiding,  and  that  the  sea  is  steadily  enlarging 
its  dominion.  This  work,  as  it  has  progressed  through 
the  years  until  his  death,  constitutes  an  important  con- 
tribution to  the  facts  and  philosophy  of  the  science  of 
geology  which  he  cultivated. 

In  1864  Doctor  Cook  was  appointed  State  Geologist, 
and  held  the  position  until  his  death.  His  first  task  was 
found  in  preparing  an  elaborate  exposition  of  the  mineral 
resources  of  the  State,  which  had  been  brought  to  light 
by  earlier  surveys,  and  he  added  to  these  a  series  of 
special  investigations  such  as  were  required  for  the  sym- 
metric treatment  of  the  subject.  This  exposition  was 
completed  and  published  in  1868  in  a  large  octavo  volume 
accompanied   by  a  portfolio  of  maps.     He   thus   at   the 


23 

beginning  cleared  the  field,  systematized  the  existing 
knowledge,  and  developed  a  comprehensive  plan  for  the 
researches  which  he  carried  on  until  the  day  of  his  death. 
To  him  geology  was  not  wholly  a  speculative  science. 
His  conception  of  the  duties  imposed  on  him  by  being 
entrusted  with  public  funds  urged  him  to  administer  his 
trust  in  such  a  manner  that  the  welfare  of  the  State  might 
be  promoted  thereby.  He  did  not  neglect  the  great 
philosophic  problems  of  his  science,  for  he  directed  the 
investigations  of  the  Survey  into  structural  geology,. 
paleontology,  chemistry,  and  geography ;  but  he  held 
over  these  researches  a  constant  corrective  by  making" 
them  responsible  for  exact  determinations  of  industrial 
value.  A  series  of  great  economic  problems  was  forever 
in  his  mind :  How  can  these  inundated  lands  be  re- 
gained ?  How  can  the  broad  fields  of  New  Jersey  be 
fertilized  ?  How  can  the  potter's  art  be  developed  from 
the  clays  of  the  Coastal  Plain  ?  How  can  the  deposits  of 
zinc  be  utilized  by  the  industries  of  the  State,  and  how 
can  the  great  beds  of  iron-ore  be  transformed  into  the 
instruments  of  modern  civilization?  And  he  applied  the 
principles  of  science  to  these  problems.  Geograph)'-,  geol- 
ogy, paleontology  and  chemistry  were  all  made  subsidiary 
to  the  leading  purpose  of  his  survey. 

Science  was  thus  made  to  bless  mankind,  and  the 
advancement  of  science  did  not  lose  thereby  ;  science  and 
industry  in  copartnership  were  each  strengthened  ;  indus- 
tries of  great  magnitude  and  value  to  the  people  were 
steadily  developed,  and  science  itself  steadily  grew  under 
the  genius  of  his  guidance. 

The  State  of  New  Jersey  is  the  seat  of  ancient  seas. 
From  the  sediments  therein  deposited  the  rocks  of  the 
hills  of  New  Jersey  were  made.  The  history  of  New 
Jersey  through  long  geologic  time  is  a  history  of  innu- 
merable earthquakes  consequent  upon  the  upheaval  and 


24 

depression  of  its  lands.  At  one  period  in  its  history  it 
was  the  scene  of  vast  volcanic  activity,  when  molten  rocks 
poured  to  the  surface.  Built  by  the  sea,  it  has  been  fash- 
ioned by  the  storm,  and  the  waves  of  ocean  have  carved 
its  shores  with  a  fret-work  of  beautiful  forms.  Its  low 
shores,  its  coastal  plains,  its  broad  valleys,  and  its  billowy 
hills  have  been  carved  by  rains  and  rivers  until  it  presents 
a  landscape  of  beauty.  These  physical  features  of  the 
State,  which  express  its  beauty  and  record  its  history  and 
reveal  its  structure,  became  one  of  the  great  studies  of 
Doctor  Cook  when  he  began  the  topographic  survey  of 
the  State.  He  lived  to  see  that  survey  completed  ;  and 
he  gave  to  the  industries  of  the  land  and  to  the  science 
of  the  world  the  first  great  topographic  map  of  a  State 
constructed  on  this  continent.  Had  this  been  his  sole 
contribution  to  the  knowledge  of  the  world,  it  would  have 
made  him  worthy  of  high  honor. 

With  the  increase  of  population  in  this  country,  the 
ordinary  wells  which  gather  the  water  from  the  surface 
steadily  become  dangerous  to  health  and  life.  With  the 
multiplication  of  manufacturing  establishments  and 
through  other  agencies,  ever  on  the  increase,  the  streams 
become  polluted  and  their  waters  freighted  with  disease. 
The  supply  of  pure  water  for  domestic  purposes  to  the 
people  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  early  attracted  the 
attention  of  Doctor  Cook.  With  profound  insight  into 
the  physical  structure  of  the  State,  he  early  became  con- 
"vinced  that  the  hills  of  the  highlands  constituted  a 
■catchment  area  for  the  waters  of  deep-seated  rocks  in  the 
lowlands,  and  that  through  these  pervious  formations, 
outcropping  above,  the  waters  were  filtered  and  purified 
and  could  be  reached  by  artesian  boring  along  the  coast. 
His  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  and  now  the  beautiful  towns 
of  the  region  are  made  salubrious  through  the  genius  of 
his  scientific  induction.      Today  thousands   of   wells    ex- 


25 

tending  along  our  coast  from  New  York  to  Florida  pour 
out  the  pure  waters  of  life  and  bless  multitudes  of 
people  and  make  their  homes  happy.  The  clouds  of 
the  highlands  are  tributary  to  the  cottages  of  the  coast, 
and  the  rocks  deeply  seated  in  the  foundations  of  the 
earth  carry  them  on  their  way. 

Through  long  years  of  his  life  Professor  Cook  was 
engaged  in  investigations  relating  to  agricultural  indus- 
tries. The  interests  affected  by  these  investigations  are 
vast,  for  they  are  at  the  foundation  of  all  prosperity. 
The  facts  and  principles  to  be  investigated  are  multi- 
farious and  complex,  relating  to  climate,  to  soil,  to  vege- 
tal life  and  animal  life,  and  to  the  relations  of  all  these 
to  human  life.  Science  has  done  much  for  modern  indus- 
tries in  manufacturing,  in  mining,  in  transporting,  and 
in  commerce;  the  hidden  powers  of  the  world  have  been 
discovered  and  tamed;  but  science  has  done  compara- 
tively little  for  agriculture,  and  Dr.  Cook  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  a  vast  system  of  research  which  has  now 
been  established  throughout  the  land  on  a  comprehensive 
and  symmetric  plan.  Through  the  agency  of  these 
founders,  of  whom  Doctor  Cook  was  one  of  the  leaders, 
experiment  stations  have  been  established  in  every  State 
of  the  Union,  endowed  by  national  and  State  grants,  and 
the  greatest  army  of  investigators  ever  organized  under 
the  sun  is  now  at  work  on  the  complex  problems  of  agri- 
cultural science.  This  was  the  crowning  labor  of  a  long 
and  fruitful  life.  It  has  been  a  quiet,  but  vigorous  and 
efficient  movement,  and  the  people  do  not  realize  what 
has  been  done.  The  labors  in  this  cause  of  this  beneficent 
friend  of  mankind  were  untiring.  They  were  conducted 
among  men  of  affairs,  in  the  seats  of  learning,  in  the 
State  legislatures  and  in  the  national  Congress.  Every- 
where his  benign  influence  was  exerted  and  felt ;  his 
counsels  were  taken  with  delight,  and  he  became  a  leader 


26 

of  men  where  only  the  wisest  and  best  men  could  be  led. 
His  appeal  was  to  scholars  and  statesmen,  and  the  coun- 
sels of  this  old  man  eloquent  ultimately  prevailed. 

From  the  early  history  of  civilization  until  the  present 
time  many  great  thinkers  of  the  world  have  been  con- 
structing temples  of  philosophy.  It  began  with  Socrates, 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  this  temple-building  has  con- 
tinued through  the  times  of  Saint  Thomas  Aquinas  down 
to  Hegel,  Schelling  and  Fichte,  and  even  later  to  the  days 
of  Herbert  Spencer.  These  theorizing  philosophers  have 
attempted  to  construct  systems  for  the  explanation  of  all 
things  in  the  universe,  and  to  build  their  philosophy  upon 
a  few ''fundamental  principles" — postulates,  presupposi- 
tions— constructing  temples  founded  on  their  domes. 
One  by  one  these  philosophies  have  crumbled  into  dust 
and  we  know  them  only  by  their  ruins.  The  history  of 
civilization  is  marked  by  the  ruins  of  fallen  philosophies, 
now  most  interesting  to  historic  archaeology. 

In  modern  times  another  philosophy  is  being  con- 
structed— the  great  temple  of  science.  On  this  structure  a 
vast  army  of  scholars  is  at  work  through  the  multifarious 
methods  of  scientific  research,  and  they  are  building  this 
temple  with  its  foundation  on  the  granite  base  of  fact. 
George  Hammell  Cook  was  a  master  workman  on  this 
temple,  building  with  the  facts  and  principles  discovered 
by  modern  scientific  research. 

I  knew  Doctor  Cook  best  as  a  counselor  and  a  friend. 
Having  responsibilities  thrown  upon  me  kindred  to  those 
borne  by  him,  I  was  glad  to  seek  wisdom  at  his  feet. 
Honest  and  pure,  he  was  far-seeing,  and  for  his  counsel  I 
owe  a  debt  of  gratitude.  His  ways  were  characterized  by 
directness  aud  simplicity,  and  I  learned  to  love  him  as  a 
father  and  to  be  guided  by  him  as  a  son.  And  now  the 
wise  old  man  is  gone.  This  fountain  of  wisdom  flows  no 
more.     The  processes  of    time  and  change  never  cease. 


27 

On  wc  go  with  the  stream  of  events.  Shall  our  lives  also- 
make  the  world  better  ?  The  light  is  from  on  high.  The 
powers  of  the  earth  come  from  the  heavens.  They  who 
have  wielded  these  powers  best  are  placed  in  the  firma- 
ment of  history. 

The  method  of  human  progress  is  not  through  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  for  man  is  more  than  brute. 

The  agency  for  the  progress  of  mankind  is  the  influence 
of  the  fittest.  In  all  ages  this  has  been  recognized,  now 
clearly,  now  dimly.  In  harmony  with  its  principles,  those 
who  have  best  served  humanity  have  been  placed  on  high 
among  the  stars  of  our  history,  that  the  light  of  their 
immortal  deeds  may  forever  shine  upon  the  pathway  of 
mortal  men. 

George  Hammell  Cook  is  among  the  stars.  On  earth 
he  loved  justice  and  rendered  justice  ;  he  loved  the  truth 
and  sought  the  truth  ;  and,  dead,  he  lives  again,  the  star 
of  justice  and  truth.  O,  venerable  friend,  your  counsels 
were  wise  and  your  example  beneficent;  shine  on,  to 
illumine  our  way  to  the  truth  and  the  right  with  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God. 


DOCTOR  COOK  AS  A  MAN  OF  SCIENCE. 

BY    THE    REV.    J.    B.    DRURY,    D.    D. 

T  HAVE  been  invited  on  this  memorial  occasion  to 
speak  a  few  words  on  Doctor  Cook  as  a  man  of 
science.  He  was  a  many-sided  man,  well  recognized  in 
the  arrangements  for  this  commemorative  gathering. 
Others  have  been  requested  to  speak  of  him  as  a  teacher, 
a  devoted  citizen  of  New  Jersey,  the  head  of  a  geological 
survey  and  as  a  colleague  in  college  work,  in  each  of 
which  spheres  he  won  distinction.  But,  concededly  great 
and  useful  as  he  was  in  all  these  capacities,  his  eminence 
as  a  man  of  science  is  even  more  surely  and  deservedly 
established.  As  a  scientist,  he  possessed  qualities  which 
command  remark  and  admiration. 

He  was  so  thorough,  so  indefatigable,  so  broad,  so 
exact,  so  independent,  and  withal  so  modest  and  free  from 
personal  ambition,  that  in  him  we  find  a  rare  combination, 
which  serves  to  explain  the  high  distinction  he  won  and 
the  influence  he  exerted,  both  among  his  scientific  asso- 
ciates, his  pupils  and  the  common  people.  He  possessed 
in  an  eminent  degree  the  scientific  mind.  He  was  a  close 
and  accurate  observer.  No  detail  escaped  his  inquisitive 
attention.  His  power  of  analysis  was  keen,  neglecting  no 
factor  entering  into  phenomena.  In  synthesis  he  was 
equally  exhaustive,  ever  careful  to  omit  nothing  essential 


29 

to  the  result.  His  mind  was  ever  open  to  receive  new 
light,  and  so  unwedded  to  theories  was  he  that  each  new 
discovery  found  with  him  an  unbiased  consideration.  His 
patience  in  investigation  was  only  equalled  by  his  per- 
sistence in  seeking  and  proving  new  data,  whether  con- 
firmatory or  destructive  of  the  old.  He  discovered  and 
announced  more  than  thirty  years  ago  the  subsidence  of 
the  Jersey  coast,  and  almost  his  last  journey  was  to 
the  shore  after  the  storms  of  last  Fall,  to  examine  on  the 
spot  the  ravages  of  the  ocean  and  weigh  their  bearing  on 
this  well-established  fact. 

A  few  years  ago  he  attended  and  addressed  a  meeting 
of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  at  Montreal,  the  place  at  which  in  1857  he 
announced  this  discovery.  He  opened  his  address  with 
words  to  this  effect:  "As  I  stated  w^hen  I  last  addressed 
you  in  this  place  " — and  immediately  the  assembly  broke 
into  applause  in  recognition  of  the  true  scientific  persist- 
ence which,  after  a  lapse  of  thirty  years  brings  confirma- 
tory evidence,  gathered  patiently  year  by  year.  He  was 
slow  and  cautious  in  affirmation.  Not  given  to  theorizing 
and  modest  to  a  fault,  he  had  seldom  to  withdraw  a  state- 
ment. Under  an  impassive  demeanor  was  an  enthusiasm 
which  kept  him  active  and  zealous  to  the  last  in  the  prose- 
cution of  his  chosen  studies.  By  reading,  by  correspond- 
ence and  personal  investigation,  he  kept  pace  with  the 
progress  of  science.  Of  necessity  he  was,  in  consequence, 
most  industrious,  frugal  in  time,  yet  never  so  as  to  despise 
the  humblest  channel  of  information.  He  kept  himself 
ever  in  contact  with  the  common  people.  The  fisherman 
and  farmer,  the  miner  and  mechanic,  knew  him,  honored 
him  and  helped  gladly  and  efficiently  in  his  work.  From 
such  sources  he  gathered  facts  which,  sifted  and  comple- 
mented by  his  own  stores  of  knowledge,  helped  to  build 


30 

up  the  contributions  so  important  which  he  made  to 
science. 

Doctor  Cook's  scientific  attainments  and  tastes  were 
broad,  but  as  was  natural  in  the  head  of  a  geological 
survey  of  a  State,  they  centered  more  and  more  in 
geology,  and  in  that  department  his  specialty  was  in  the 
formations  exemplified  in  this  State,  and  particularly  their 
structural,  rather  than  their  paleontological  features. 

The  annual  reports  of  the  Geological  Survey,  of  which 
he  was  head,  and  the  volumes  published  or  about  to  be 
published,  are  a  monument  most  enduring  to  his  patient 
and  thorough  work  thereon,  and  to  his  scientific  ability. 
Though  his  work  was  not  fully  completed,  he  did  enough 
to  put  him  in  the  front  rank,  as  an  original  investigator 
and  important  contributor  to  geological  science.  He 
cultivated  science  from  love  for  it  and  its  beneficent  fruits, 
and  cared  little  for  the  notoriety  or  fame  to  be  won. 

Few  took  less  part  in  the  ventilation  of  theories  or  the 
<:ontentions  of  schools,  yet  no  one  had  clearer  views  or 
could  express  them  more  exactly  and  in  language  intelli- 
gible to  the  plain  people,  and  few  among  our  working 
geologists  have  contributed  more  abundantly  to  the 
ascertained  facts  of  the  science.  Among  these  contribu- 
tions may  be  noted  : 

First.  The  subsidence  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  discovered 
and  proven  by  his  observation  on  the  Jersey  shore.  This 
was  announced  in  1857  to  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  at  Montreal,  and  as  we  have 
already  mentioned,  continued  a  matter  of  investigation 
even  to  the  end. 

Second.  The  discovery  of  the  stratigraphical  relations 
■of  the  green  sand  marl  beds,  and  the  addition  to  the 
geological  column  of  newer  and  important  strata,  bearing 
fruit  not  only  in  improved  agricultural  resources,  but  in 


31 

supplying   pure   and    wholesome   water   to  the   seaboard 
communities  of  the  State. 

Third.  The  discovery  and  outlining  of  the  great  ter- 
minal Moraine  in  the  eastern  United  States,  running 
across  New  Jersey  and  the  adjacent  parts  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania.  It  was  announced  in  a  paper  read  at 
Wilkesbarre  before  the  American  Institute  of  Mining 
Engineers  in  1877,  and  described  in  his  annual  reports  for 
the  years  1877  and  1878. 

Fourth.  His  determination  with  exactness  of  the 
stratigraphical  relations  of  the  clay  beds  of  the  State,  so 
important  to  the  fire-clay  and  potters-clay  industries,  and 
of  the  geological  structure  of  the  magnetic  ore  beds,  of 
special  value  not  only  to  the  iron  miner  and  the  iron  ore 
prospector,  but  to  the  geologist  and  the  mining  engineer. 
These  important  contributions  were  published  in  the 
report  of  1878  for  the  clays,  and  of  1883  for  iron  ores. 

Fifth.  The  exhibition  by  practical  application  of  the 
value  of  accurate  topographical  maps  in  geological  study. 
Thanks  to  Doctor  Cook,  New  Jersey  is  the  best  mapped 
State  in  the  Union,  and  his  atlas  of  New  Jersey  is  recog- 
nized as  a  real  contribution  to  the  science  of  geology  as 
well  as  geography. 

I  may  not  further  dwell,  nor  need  I,  upon  what  Doctor 
Cook  achieved  as  a  man  of  science.  1  would  merely  call 
attention  to  two  marked  traits,  intimately  connected, 
which  preeminently  characterized  him  as  a  scientist. 

First.  The  emphasis  he  placed  on  the  practical  or 
useful  applications  of  science.  This  was  so  strong  that 
nothing  in  the  way  of  theoretical  or  speculative  science 
ever  diverted  him  from  the  single  aim  of  making  his 
scientific  knowledge  and  discoveries  useful  to  his  fellow 
men.     He  was   not  without  interest  in   the  philosophy  of 


32 

science,  but  that  was  ever  subordinate  to  his  desire  to 
enrich  and  benefit  the  people.  The  utilitarian,  economic, 
practical  features  of  science  were  what  most  profoundly 
interested  him  and  enlisted  his  energies.  His  proudest 
monument  today  is  the  riches  and  increased  wealth  he 
conferred  by  his  scientific  studies  on  the  State  of  his  birth 
and  later  residence.  He  had  not  time  and  was  too  con- 
scientiously scrupulous  to  seek  riches  for  himself,  his 
knowledge  was  never  used  for  personal  gain,  but  no  man 
ever  lived  in  the  State  who  opened  so  many  sources  of 
enrichment  to  others. 

By  his  study  of  the  marl  beds  and  indicating  where  this 
fertilizer  could  be  most  economically  gotten  and  how 
most  advantageously  used,  as  well  as  by  his  lectures  to 
farmers,  giving  them  the  benefit  of  his  science  and  taking 
to  them  the  results  of  most  careful  experiments,  he  has 
made  the  agriculture  of  the  State  vastly  more  productive 
than  a  generation  ago.  His  maps  of  the  clay  beds  gave 
fortunes  to  many,  and  built  up  and  expanded  the  great 
fireclay  and  pottery  industries  of  the  State.  His  ex- 
haustive study  and  charting  of  the  ore  beds  of  the  State 
made  mining  more  certain  and  profitable.  He  told  the 
cities  by  the  sea  how  to  get  pure  water,  and  added  thereby 
hundreds  of  dollars  to  the  value  of  every  acre  along  the 
coast.  One  has  but  to  read  his  reports  as  State  Geologist 
to  see  how  this  economic  feature  of  the  work  is  ever 
uppermost.  To  improve  the  health  and  increase  the 
wealth  of  the  State,  the  welfare  of  the  people,  by  his 
knowledge,  is  the  end  ever  held  in  view.  It  was  success- 
fully executed.  A  matter  of  great  satisfaction  to  him, 
only  a  day  or  two  previous  to  his  death,  was  the  tidings 
that  the  draining  of  the  lowlands  of  the  Passaic,  in  order 
to  the  removing  of  disease,  and  opening  large  stretches  of 
waste  land  to  productive  husbandry,  for  which  he  had 
striven  for  years,  had  been   successfully  begun.      These 


33 

are  but  a  few  samples  of  the  chief  aim  of  his  scientific 
studies  and  pursuits.  Thanks  to  him,  New  Jersey  has  the 
most  complete  and  most  fruitful  geological  survey  of  all 
the  States,  and  has  become  a  model  for  others. 

Second.  The  other  characteristic  of  Doctor  Cook  as  a 
man  of  science,  furnishes  us  the  clue  to  the  form  which 
his  unwearying  and  scientific  industry  took.  It  was  his 
religious  faith. 

Science  spoke  to  him  of  God,  even  as  his  Bible:  and  in 
the  pursuit  and  the  application  of  scientific  knowledge, 
he  was  ever  the  consistent  follower  of  Christ.  With  him, 
science  was  the  handmaid  of  religion,  and  an  instrument 
of  blessing.  Because  a  follower  of  Him  who  went  about 
doing  good,  he  thought  himself  under  obligation  to  make 
his  knowledge,  his  discoveries  and  his  attainments,  a 
source  of  blessing  to  his  fellow  men.  Thus  science  be- 
came to  him  a  trust  to  be  used  to  make  men  happier  and 
better.  And  this  is  the  key  to  the  peculiarly  unselfish 
and  philanthropic  character  of  so  much  of  his  scien- 
tific work. 

Out  of  his  Christian  faith  came  also  that  honesty, 
truthfulness  and  faithfulness  which  so  characterized  him 
in  all  his  scientific  labors.  He  could  and  would  not  vary 
a  hairbreadth  from  the  strict  path  of  truth  and  duty.  A 
statement  by  him,  ever  carried  conviction.  When  his 
maps  of  the  clay  deposits  were  issued,  lands  were  at  once 
sold  and  bought  on  the  basis  of  their  trustworthiness; 
seller  and  purchaser  accepted  them  as  beyond  all  ques- 
tion, so  great  confidence  had  he  infused,  not  only  in  his 
science,  but  in  his  honesty  and  truthfulness.  His  devo- 
tion to  the  beneficent  work  he  was  doing,  was  such  that 
he  wrought  on  a  mere  pittance  of  a  salary.  The  whole 
expense  of  the  invaluable  survey  was  only  eight  thousand 
3 


34 

dollars  per  year,  and  the  statement  "  all  bills  paid  and 
there  are  no  debts,"  is  an  invariable  part  of  his  annual 
report.  No  wonder  the  State  continued  such  a  man  in 
the  position.  He  was  more  careful  of  the  State's  money 
than  had  it  been  his  own,  and  never,  we  venture  to  say, 
did  a  State  ever  get  more  for  the  expenditure,  than  from 
the  Geological  Survey  conducted  by  the  scientist  and 
Christian,  Doctor  George  H.  Cook. 

He  was  a  man  of  whom  the  State,  this  Institution,  the 
world  of  science,  and  the  Church  of  Christ  can  well  be 
proud.  He  was  a  scientist  of  the  highest  order,  thor- 
ough, conscientious,  persevering,  and  successful  in  seek- 
ing, knowing  and  applying  the  truths  of  science.  He 
was  also  a  sincere  and  intelligent  Christian,  illustrat- 
ingin  his  life  the  entire  consistency  of  the  highest  at- 
tainments in  science  with  fullest  faith  in  the  God  of 
the  Bible. 


DOCTOR   COOK   AS   A   MEMBER   OF 
THE    FACULTY. 

BY    PROFESSOR    T.    S.    DOOLITTLE,    D.  D. 

TT  would  be  impossible  for  me  not  to  allow  the  element 
of  personal  affection  to  enter  into  my  estimate  of 
Doctor  Cook's  character  and  services  as  a  colleague.  A 
•student  under  him  from  1855  (his  connection  with  Rut- 
gers began  in  1853),  brought  into  closer  relations  with 
him  than  with  any  other  professor  during  both  the  four 
years  of  my  collegiate  and  the  three  years  of  my  semi- 
nary life,  returning  after  a  brief  pastorate  of  two  years  to 
be  associated  with  him  as  a  member  of  the  Faculty  for  a 
period  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  enjoying  thus  altogether 
an  acquaintance  extending  through  thirty-four  years,  and 
finding  him  always  "my  friend,  faithful  and  just  to  me" — 
how  can  I  help  betraying  a  feeling  of  deepest  personal  love 
and  of  exalted  personal  admiration  !  And  with  my  heart 
aflame  in  memory  of  his  virtues,  why  should  I  attempt  to 
speak  of  him  as  a  stranger  unknown  and  unrevered  ! 

It  was  because  honest  Will  Shakespeare^had  stood  the 
test — every  test  of  friendship  and  manhood — not  only  in 
the  fierce  ambitions  for  fame  before  the  footlights  and  in 
the  free  interchange  of  wit  and  banter  at  the  coffee-house, 
but  in  the  rivalries  and  vexations  of  the  rehearsal  behind 
the  scenes,  that  Ben  Jonson's  testimony  to  his  character 
is  so  valuable.     When,  therefore,  we   hear  rare  old^^Ben 


36 

exclaiming  with  tearful  eyes  and  a  throbbing  heart:  "I 
loved  the  man,  and  do  honor  his  memory,  on  this  side 
idolatry,  as  much  as  any" — we  recognize  that  he  knew 
at  least  what  his  words  meant  and  felt  constrained  to 
twine  no  less  a  chaplet  of  praise  around  the  brow  of  his 
silent,  but  more  than  ever  appreciated  companion.  And 
so,  if  we  members  of  the  Faculty  seem  to  eulogize  our 
beloved  colleague  a  little  too  warmly,  bear  with  us,  for 
we  come  from  behind  the  scenes  with  a  tribute  to  those 
traits  of  his  which  nowhere  else  were  subjected  to  such 
crucial  tests,  and  nowhere  else  shone  with  a  lustre  so- 
untarnished  and  attractive. 

DOCTOR  cook's  HOPEFULNESS. 

We  realized  more  than  outsiders  could,  his  great- 
hearted buoyancy  and  cheerfulness.  His  broad  expanse 
of  face,  full  of  light,  his  eyes  gleaming  with  kindliness 
as  well  as  with  shrewdness  and  often  with  a  right  merry 
twinkle,  his  genial  smile,  his  frank  greeting,  never  marred 
by  any  hollow  and  flippant  phrase  of  mere  etiquette,  but 
as  honest  as  it  was  cordial,  his  sympathy  so  responsive 
yet  so  genuine,  his  massive  though  quiet  strength  of  pur- 
pose, and  his  great  self-contained,  self-poised  nature;  all 
crowned  with  boundless  hopefulness,  united  to  make  his 
very  presence  an  inspiration  and  a  benediction. 

With  a  consummate  knowledge  of  human  nature,  John 
Bunyan  portrays  Hopeful  as  the  fellow  pilgrim  of  Chris- 
tian along  the  way  to  the  celestial  city.  And  when  Chris- 
tian wanders  from  the  true  path  and  they  get  into 
difficulty.  Hopeful,  with  characteristic  modesty  and 
charity,  says:  "Never  mind,  brother,  I  forgive  thee,  only 
let  us  turn  this  disadvantage  to  our  profit."  Again,  when 
a  little  later  they  find  themselves  shut  up  in  a  dungeon  of 
the  castle  belonging  to  Giant  Despair  and  poor  Christian 


37 

is  tempted  to  suicide,  it  is  Hopeful  that  rises  equal  to  the 
crisis  and  persuades  his  despondent  friend  to  thrust  the 
key  called  "promise"  into  the  prison  lock  and  give  it  a 
turn.  He  does  it.  The  door  flies  open  and  they  escape; 
Well,  Doctor  Cook  was  our  Mr.  Hopeful.  How  apt  and 
skillful  he  was  in  converting  a  disadvantage  into  profit 
He  was  an  expert  in  opening  locks  with  the  key  of  prom- 
ise. His  courage  was  contagious.  He  never  despaired 
himself  nor  allowed  us  to  despair.  Many  a  time  we 
followed  him  from  the  darkness  of  doubt  into  the  open 
day  of  faith.  , 

HIS   FERTILITY    OF    RESOURCES. 

Nor  was  he  less  versatile  than  hopeful.  He  was  always 
projecting  new  plans  for  improving  the  curriculum,  for 
multiplying  professorships,  for  erecting  new  buildings, 
and  for  bringing  the  scientific  department  into  more  vital 
relations  with  the  State,  so  as  to  widen  its  usefulness  and 
influence.  Here  are  a  few  instances  of  his  versatility  and 
perseverance.  This  institution  upon  his  arrival  was  desti- 
tute both  of  scientific  collections  and  an  exhibition  hall.^ 
He  did  not,  however,  deem  a  beginning  useless,  nor  did  he 
despise  the  day  of  small  things.  It  was  one  of  his  grand- 
est characteristics  never  to  despise  the  day  of  small 
things,  but  to  detect  an  oak  in  an  acorn  and  to  predict  the 
century  flower  from  the  germ  of  the  century  plant. 
Accordingly  he  organized  his  classes  into  a  natural  his- 
tory society  and  kindled  among  them  a  flame  of  enthu- 
siasm akin  to  his  own  for  gathering  minerals,  birds  and 
insects,  coins  and  curiosities  of  all  kinds. 

But  at  what  a  pathetic  cost  to  himself  and  his  scientific 
future  was  this  work  carried  on  !  Think  of  the  priceless 
value  of  such  a  man's  time  ;  think  of  those  superb  ener- 
gies of  his  frittered  away  upon  us  when  they  might  have 


38 

been  utilized  in  making  discoveries  promotive  of  his 
reputation  and  power.  You  must  concede  that  his 
patience  in  listening  to  our  crude  papers  and  in  flooding 
with  light  our  ignorant  discussions  was  heroic,  not  to  say 
fairly  sublime ;  while  his  delicacy  and  tact  in  concealing 
our  imperfections  from  ourselves  and  in  stimulating  us  to- 
higher  attainments  were  as  beautiful  as  they  were  helpful. 
Nor  were  his  efforts  vain.  One  of  us  brought  him  a 
crocodile  from  Florida  ;  another  a  flamingo  and  turtle 
from  the  Bahama  Islands  ;  another  the  bones  of  extinct 
animals  from  the  marl  beds  of  New  Jersey;  another 
copper  nuggets  from  Lake  Superior,  and  others,  gold  and 
silver  ores  from  Colorado  and  Nevada.  Nor  was  this  all. 
When  Doctor  Cook  heard  of  rare  and  valuable  specimens 
which  their  owners  would  not  donate,  and  the  money  for 
which  he  knew  not  where  to  beg,  he  would  buy  them 
himself  and  would  point  to  them  with  a  tone  of  satisfac- 
tion which  it  made  one  happy  to  witness,  though  he  never 
gave  a  hint  of  his  own  unselfish  liberality. 

One  day,  while  inspecting  some  remarkable  fossil 
tracks,  which  were  among  the  finest  in  the  whole  world 
and  were  enough  to  have  made  the  face  of  Hugh  Miller 
glow  like  a  star,  I  asked  :  "What  did  they  cost?"  "Oh, 
I  don't  know;  between  one  and  two  hundred  dollars,  I 
suppose."  "Where  did  you  get  the  money?"  "Oh,  I  got 
it."  "Did  the  Trustees  furnish  it?"  "Not  that  I  know 
of,"  "Did  you  thrust  your  hand  into  the  pocket  of  some 
alumnus?"  "I  guess  not,"  he  replied,  with  a  character-p 
istic  shrug  of  his  shoulders  and  shake  of  the  head. 
"Well,  where  did  you  find  it?"  "Oh,  no  matter;  I  found 
it."  "Ah,  I  see,"  said  I;  "you  have  been  playing  another 
one  of  your  tricks  upon  your  own  purse."  "Perhaps  so," 
he  replied,  while  his  eyes  were  laughing  and  sparkling  j 
"but  you  needn't  say  anything  about  it,  though."  In  the 
same  way  Doctor  Cook  gave  hundreds,  rather,  I  believe 


39 

from  what  I  learned  incidentally  and  at  different  times, 
thousands  of  dollars  in  order,  to  quote  his  favorite  ex- 
pression, "to  make  things  go."  And  things  did  go  I 
When  he  came  a  carpetbag  would  have  held  all  our 
collections.  Long  before  his  death  they  had  so  expanded 
as  to  make  yonder  geological  hall,  with  its  spacious  and 
noble  museum  a  necessity;  and  it  rose  in  response  to  his 
earnest  wishes. 

After  it  was  finished  he  needed  some  two  thousand 
dollars  for  cases.  His  hope  ran  into  faith.  "I'll  venture," 
he  said,  "upon  a  new  method.  I'll  have  the  cases  built 
and  filled  with  such  attractive  exhibitions  as  to  tempt  the 
pride  and  loyalty  of  the  alumni  to  pay  for  them."  It  was 
done.  His  fertility  of  resource  came  out  on  another 
occasion  when  the  college  wanted  more  apparatus.  He 
devised  a  course  of  lectures  to  be  given  by  Doctors  Van 
Dyck  and  Rockwood,  and  then  persuaded  the  managers  of 
our  factories  here  to  bear  the  expense  in  order  to  afford 
free  instruction  to  the  masses.  The  plan  was  as  success- 
ful as  ingenious,  and  with  the  net  proceeds,  some  seven 
hundred  dollars,  the  apparatus  was  secured. 

If  we  wanted  the  State  college  to  become  united  with 
Rutgers,  or  an  agricultural  bill  passed  at  Washington,  or 
an  appropriation  from  our  State  for  the  construction  of 
New  Jersey  Hall,  with  its  well-equipped  laboratories,  we 
turned  instinctively  to  Doctor  Cook  ;  for  he  knew  the 
leaders  of  the  national  administration,  the  Senators  and 
Congressmen,  the  Governor  and  Assemblymen — in  short, 
every  prominent  man  concerned,  and  could  harmonize 
them  all,  if  such  a  thing  were  possible,  in  favor  of  the 
desired  object.  It  was  he  who  by  his  lectures,  delivered 
from  town  to  town,  popularized  science  and  made  it 
profitable  for  the  farmers.  It  was  he  who  reminded  the 
county  schools  and  their  superintendents  of  the  free' 
tuition  at  Rutgers  for  the  brightest  and  best  boys  in  those 


40 

schools.  It  was  he  who  made  many  a  parent  believe  that 
the  richest  legacy  he  could  leave  his  son  would  be  a 
disciplined  brain  and  a  sanctified  heart.  His  influence 
was  a  tower  of  strength  for  our  scientific  college,  for 
whilst  the  other  professors  did  their  work  on  the  inside, 
and  did  it  well,  Doctor  Cook's  agency  extended  to  the 
outside  as  well  as  inside,  and  was  forever  attracting  public 
attention  and  support.  Is  it  strange  that  we  learned  to 
lean  on  such  a  man  and  fell  into  the  habit  of  trust- 
ing him  ? 

If,  as  will  sometimes  happen,  the  veil  of  uncertainty 
and  distrust  seemed  to  hang  over  our  future,  Doctor 
Cook's  strong  arm  would  draw  aside  the  veil  and  point 
out  signs  of  promise  which  the  rest  of  us  had  either  failed 
to  observe  or  rightly  to  interpret.  In  many  a  trouble  we 
heard  his  buoyant  voice  and  walked  in  the  light  that 
flooded  his  eyes.  "  Never  mind  the  present  discourage- 
ment," he  would  say;  "let's  do  our  duty  with  what  we 
have  ;  Providence,  depend  upon  it,  will  send  us  some- 
thing better  after  awhile." 

Though  not  a  dreamer,  he  yet  agreed  with  Emerson 
that  it  was  wiser  as  well  as  pleasanter  to  see  castles  than 
dungeons  in  the  air.  No  wonder  we  loved  his  society;  he 
•came  among  us  when  we  were  depressed,  like  the  outburst 
of  the  sun  from  behind  a  cloud. 

HIS    SELF   COMMAND. 

I  do  not  mean  to  affirm,  however,  that  Doctor  Cook 
was  nothing  but  a  peddler  of  sweet  hopes  and  delicious 
amiabilities.  He  was  a  man  of  like  passions  with  our- 
selves, capable  of  smarting  under  an  affront  and  of 
yielding  to  a  momentary  gust  of  temper.  His  was  no 
nerveless  and  flabby  organization,  like  that  of  an  octupus, 
which  can  be  sliced  away  by  inches  without  causing  a 


41 

twinge  of  pain  or  reaching  a  vital  part.  On  the  contrary, 
he  was  keenly  sensitive,  naturally  quick  and  impulsive  ; 
but  he  had  acquired  the  art  of  rigid  self-control.  Under 
strong  provocation  his  eyes  would  flash,  his  cheeks  flame, 
his  lips  quiver,  his  robest  frame  shake  with  indignation 
and  righteous  wrath  ;  but  he  would  stand  still,  wrestling 
with  himself  and  allowing  no  unguarded  word,  often  no 
word  at  all,  to  escape.  Such  an  impressive  and  masterful 
illustration  of  self-conquest  has  often  reminded  us  of  the 
inspired  writer's  eulogium  :  "Verily,  he  that  ruleth  his 
own  spirit  is  greater  than  he  that  taketh  a  city."  The 
conqueror  of  cities  has  generally  shown  himself  a  grown- 
up and  spoiled  child,  peevish,  fretful,  intolerant  even  of  a 
courteous  difference  of  opinion.  Alexander,  for  example, 
when  his  vanity  was  piqued,  sent  a  javelin  through  the 
heart  of  his  best  friend  and  ablest  general  for  having 
ventured  to  criticise  one  of  his  campaigns,  and  then  in  a 
second  fit  of  ungovernable  remorse  turned  his  sword 
toward  his  own  bosom,  and  would  have  died  a  suicide  had 
not  an  officer's  hand  turned  aside  the  point. 

What  a  contrast  with  all  this  was  Doctor  Cook  !  He 
not  only  welcomed  the  widest  and  freest  discussion,  but 
could  bear  the  stoutest  opposition.  Nor  would  he  ever 
assume  an  air  of  mortification  and  injured  innocence,  if 
he  happened  to  be  voted  down.  Habitually  and  delicately 
considerate  of  the  feelings  of  others,  he  would  rarely  an- 
tagonize directly  our  purposes  and  plans,  but  would  seek 
to  overcome  them,  either  by  progressive  suggestions  or  a 
final  adroit  substitution  of  his  own.  He  cultivated  good 
nature  as  he  did  self-command,  and  this  with  the  aid  of 
divine  grace  resulted  in  his  attaining  one  the  most  uni- 
form and  charming  of  dispositions.  In  the  clashing  of 
ideas  and  interests,  common  to  all  bodies  like  a  Faculty, 
he  never  gave  any  of  us — that  I  can  remember — one  harsh 


42 

or  bitter  word.      Such  a  character  was,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, remarkable  for 

THE  FIDELITY  AND  PERMANENCE  OF  HIS  FRIENDSHIP. 

A  secret  confided  to  Doctor  Cook's  ear  was  as  safe  as 
if  hidden  behind  the  impenetrable  veil  of  the  Egyptian 
Isis  forever.  Prudent  in  advice,  he  sought  to  promote 
only  our  truest  relations  and  welfare.  If  sometimes  he 
were  indirect  in  his  ways,  if  in  a  crisis  of  excitement  and 
incipient  hostility  between  you  and  another  he  hesitated 
and  did  not  stand  up  quite  so  openly  and  emphatically  as 
you  could  have  wished;  if,  in  short,  he  were  exasperat- 
ingly  cool-headed  and  non-committal,  you  realized,  after 
it  was  all  over,  that  he  had  not  been  actuated  by  any  dis- 
loyalty, but  only  by  the  habitual  caution  and  self-restraint 
to  which  he  had  schooled  himself.  Besides  it  was  his 
instinctive  policy  never  to  widen  but  rather  to  bridge  the 
chasm  that  divided  friends,  and  a  bridge  must,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  touch  both  sides  of  the  opposing 
banks. 

His  own  resentments  quickly  vanished  into  charity  and 
good  will.  I  was  one  day  walking  with  him  when  he  saw 
a  graduate  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  looking 
somewhat  perversely  in  the  wrong  direction.  Doctor 
Cook  said:  "Do  you  notice  that  the  gentleman  over  there 
does  not  want  to  see  me?  He  did  not  behave  quite  as  he 
ought  to  have  done  in  college.  Never  mind.  Let's  go 
over  and  pass  the  time  of  day  with  him,  just  to  show  him 
that  we  wish  him  well  ! "  Yes,  O  thou  model  of  a  peace- 
lover  and  peacemaker,  thou  didst  unfailingly  wish  every- 
body well,  and  didst  go  out  of  the  way,  and  how  often 
at  the  sacrifice  of  personal  pride,  to  disarm  and  win  back 
the  disaffected;  yet  never  in  a  cringing  spirit,  nor  with 
the  patronizing  air  that  is  so  offensive,  but  with  a  frank 


43 

and  manly  bearing  that  was  as  irresistible  as  it  was  noble. 
That  disgruntled  graduate  was  captured.  His  heart  was 
overborne  by  the  better  heart  of  his  master.  Subse- 
quently he  spoke  to  me  in  grateful  terms  of  his  old 
teacher's  maghaminity,  as  well  as  with  admiration  of  his 
greatness.  Here  was  a  typical  case,  showing  his  Chris- 
tian willingness,  commended  by  our  Lord,  to  leave  his 
gift  at  the  altar,  while  he  went  off  after  the  alienated 
brother,  who  ought  rather  to  have  come  to  him.  This 
spirit  made  him 

THE    MOST    HELPFUL    OF    MEN. 

How  glad  he  was  to  build  the  stairway  which  his  for- 
mer pupils  might  ascend  to  higher  activities  and  honors. 
On  one  step  of  that  stairway  stand  Vermeule  and  Bennett, 
Bevier,  Sproul  and  Van  Brackle,  Atkinson,  Staats  and 
Blakeley,  the  two  Hills  and  Luster;  all  of  whom  he 
taught  to  delineate  the  finest  geological  and  other  maps 
of  which  any  State  in  the  Union  can  boast.  On  another 
step  stands  Mr.  I.  S.  Upson,  our  efficient  Librarian  and 
the  clerical  head  of  the  survey.  On  another  stands  Pro- 
fessor F.  A.  Wilbur,  whose  analyses  of  water,  soils  and 
fertilizers  are  authoritative  in  all  the  counties  of  the  State 
and  beyond.  On  another  stands  Doctor  Francis  Cuyler 
Van  Dyck,whom  the  master  trained  for  his  own  colleague 
in  chemistry,  physics  and  electricity,  and  who  has  always 
been  as  warmly  loved  for  his  talents  as  he  is  highly 
respected  for  his  unwearied  devotion  to  his  duties.  On 
another  stands  Doctor  John  C.  Smock,  who  made  so  excel- 
lent a  name  for  himself  as  Assistant  State  Geologist  that 
the  Board  of  Regents  in  the  neighboring  Empire  State  felt 
constrained  to  invite  him  to  come  up  higher  as  Director  of 
the  great  museum  at  Albany.  On  another  stands  Edward 
A.  Bowser,  L.L.  D.,  for  whom  Doctor  Cook  obtained  the 


44 

chance  to  display  on  the  United  States  Geodetic  Survey 
unrivaled  capacity  for  making  accurate  and  difficult  tri- 
angulations  and  virhom  he  was  delighted,  as  we  all  are,  to 
see  climbing  up  and  up  with  his  enormous  load  of  seven 
mathematical  works,  embracing  two  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred pages  of  original  profound  thinking,  works  already 
used  in  nearly  ninety  colleges  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada — climbing  up  and  up  until  his  head  fairly  touches 
the  stars  and  comets  upon  which  he  lectures  with  such 
masterful  eloquence. 

Doctor  Cook  had  the  art  of  making  his  students 
believe  themselves  competent  to  do  good  work,  and  the 
faith  to  commend  them  to  the  parties  desiring  such  work. 
Nor  was  he  less  generous  of  his  sympathy  and  helpfulness 
elsewhere.  Farmers  and  plain  folks  flocked  to  him  from 
all  quarters  for  counsel  and  on  a  vast  variety  of  topics. 
And  from  him  no  inquirer  after  knowledge  ever  went 
empty  away. 

HIS    WISDOM. 

Doctor  Cook  was  a  wise  man.  As  far  back  as  Democ- 
ritus  the  distinction  has  been  made  between  learning 
and  wisdom.  Learning  embraces  multifarious  knowledge 
in  one  department  or  several.  Wisdom  lies  in  choosing 
the  noblest  ends  and  the  application  of  the  best  means 
for  their  attainment.  A  man  may  be  an  encyclopaedia  of 
the  languages  or  the  sciences,  and  yet  may  be  bereft  of 
common  sense — a  fool.  Buffon  was  fond  of  the  paradox 
that  common  sense  was  the  most  uncommon  of  endow- 
ments. Now,  Doctor  Cook's  mind  was  indeed  an  open 
library  of  information.  His  acquaintance  with  facts  and 
corresponding  theories  was  amazing ;  but  no  one  was 
wiser.  He  knew  when  speech  was  silver  and  silence 
golden.      He   took   in   a   situation    intuitively   and    with 


45 

unerring  instinct  selected  the  best  agents  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  aims.  He  understood  whom  to  aproach 
and  whom  to  leave  severely  alone.  Absolutely  without 
vanity,  he  was  content  to  get  things  done,  and  never  con- 
cerned himself  as  to  who  might  reap  the  glory.  Too 
magnanimous  to  be  piqued  or  soured  by  any  fancied  or 
real  slight,  he  never  drew  back  his  hand  from  the  plough, 
nor  hesitated  on  account  of  personal  antipathies  or  mis- 
understandings or  envy  to  cooperate  with  others  in 
driving  it  forward. 

I  have  seen  him  smile  with  imperturbable  good  nature 
at  an  individual  differing  violently  from  him  in  opinion, 
and  in  such  an  argumentum  ad  hominem,  half-abusive  style 
that  had  the  Doctor  possessed  less  wisdom  or  less  self- 
control  he  would  have  retorted  with  anger  and  made  the 
breach  irreparable.  And  yet  I  have  seen  him  using  that 
same  individual  afterwards  with  immense  advantage  to 
himself  and  his  schemes.  He  would  defer,  but  never  let  go. 
Always  casting  the  horoscope  to  see  if  the  moment  were 
ripe  for  unveiling  his  ulterior  purposes,  he  could,  never- 
theless, if  the  auspices  were  threatening,  remain  quiet  and 
bide  his  time.  Disappointed  in  one  direction,  he  would 
try  in  another  and  another.  The  more  he  was  baffled  the 
more  fertile  he  became  of  expedients,  until  at  last  he 
surprised  his  friends,  possibly  himself,  by  the  final  success 
of  plans  supposed  long  before  to  have  been  abandoned. 
The  variety  and  value  of  his  actual  achievements  attest 
the  wisdom  of  his  methods  as  well  as  perseverance  of 
his  will. 

HIS   STRENGTH. 

He  was  strong  in  physique,  in  endurance,  in  energies 
that  seemed  never  to  rest.  If  I  happened  to  be  up  at 
midnight  and  glanced  toward  his  study  window,  the  light 


46 

was  blazing  there,  and  his  large  head,  reflected  against 
the  curtain,  was  seen  bending  over  his  task.  If  sickness 
or  a  journey  roused  me  before  dawn  of  a  Winter  morning, 
I  would  see  that  light  already  kindled  and  that  same  head 
again  bending  at  the  desk.  I  used  to  wonder  when  he 
slept  or  if  he  ever  slept  at  all.  Nor  was  he  less  strong  in 
his  mental  and  moral  traits.  He  was  stalwart  in  his  pur- 
poses, in  his  friendships,  his  faith,  his  usefulness  to  men, 
his  worship  to  God.  Brave  and  unselfish,  exceptionally 
modest  and  unpretentious,  he  was  devoted  to  the  loftiest 
ideals  of  scientific  culture — a  scientific  culture,  however, 
always  subordinate  to  Christian  manhood — never  an  end  in 
itself,  but  only  a  means  for  enlarging  human  virtue  and 
glorifying  our  Maker.  Charitable  to  the  faults  of  others, 
catholic  in  ideas,  he  allowed  no  narrow  conceptions  of 
science,  though  its  utilities  were  his  constant  and  favorite 
theme,  to  close  his  eyes  to  the  importance  of  metaphysical 
investigations  or  the  problems  of  moral  philosophy.  His 
mind  was  evenly  and  admirably  balanced.  He  believed 
in  a  complete  education,  in  the  symmetrical  training  and 
informing  of  all  the  faculties  as  the  essential  preparation 
for  special  lines  of  research.  His  interest  in  young  men 
was  unbounded.  He  loved  to  dwell  upon  their  promise 
and  forecast  their  future.  Who  could  surpass  him  as  a 
patient  listener  or  a  considerate  sympathizer?  How  re- 
sponsive he  was  to  the  hopes  and  plans  of  others  !  how 
ready  to  aid  them  as  if  his  own  !  I  have  heard  his 
disinterestedness  impeached  by  the  captious  insinuation 
that  he  always  had  some  axe  to  grind.  Well,  his  axes 
were  of  such  finely  tempered  steel  and  designed  to  cut 
down  such  thickets  of  ignorance  and  error  that  most  of 
us  were  contented  to  turn  grindstone,  and  bid  Godspeed 
to  his  axes.  Nor  was  he  lacking  in  reciprocity.  He 
would  take  off  his  coat  and  turn  your  grindstone,  too, 
with  a  royal  will  and  to  excellent  purpose.     His  principle 


47 

was,  "Live  and  let  live."  Hence  his  workmen  were  often 
overpaid — paid  more  than  the  stipulated  wages,  and  his 
favors  to  you  would  be  larger,  if  the  chance  permitted, 
than  yours  toward  him.  His  purse  was  at  the  mercy  of 
the  benevolence  beggar.  Public  spirited,  he  contributed 
to  everything,  and  often  more  than  he  could  afford. 

Like  Louis  Agassiz,  he  never  had  time  to  make  money, 
though  he  might  have  been  one  of  the  richest  of^men. 
Twenty  years  ago,  as  he  told  me  himself,  he  resisted  the 
most  tempting  offers  to  act  as  a  mining  expert — offers 
which,  as  subsequent  events  proved,  would  have  rolled 
between  one  and  two  millions  of  dollars  into  his  posses- 
sion. By  his  drill  he  discovered  those  white  clay  deposits 
about  Amboy  and  Woodbridge,  which  raised  the  land 
over  them  from  one  hundred  dollars  to  several  thousands 
an  acre ;  yet  his  freedom  from  covetousness  kept  him 
from  taking  advantage  of  his  knowledge  to  purchase  a 
single  acre  of  the  unsophisticated  and  unsuspecting 
owners  thereof.  A  critic  once  said  of  him,  with  a  touch 
of  envy,  "  Doctor  Cook  is  the  recipient  of  three^salaries — 
one  from  the  College,  as  professor;  a  second  from  the 
State,  as  geologist ;  and  a  third  from  the  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station,  as  director."  Well,  my  friends,  I 
wish  he  had  received  six  instead  of  three,  for  he  managed 
to  distribute  those  salaries  so  liberally  as  to  have  little  left 
for  himself.  From  no  good  cause  did  he  hold  anything 
back,  either  gifts,  time,  talents,  energies,  or  life  itself. 
With  arduous  labors  he  wore  himself  out,  and  passed 
beyond  the  veil  at  an  age  when  his  eye  ought  yet  to  have 
been  undimmed  and  his  natural  force  unabated. 

How  could  all  these  qualities  fail  to  render  our  col- 
league a  magnet,  drawing  us  to  himself  for  safest  counsel 
and  in  the  sweetest  amenities  of  friendship  ?  In  many  a 
dark  and  anxious  hour  he  was  for  us  the  lighthouse  on 
the  cliff,  and  now,  since  death  has  quenched   the  lamp 


48 

within  the  house,  leaving  us  to  navigate  the  ship  in  the 
shadow,  how  can  we  express  our  emotions  more  fittingly 
than  in  the  words  of  Xenophon  in  regard  to  Socrates, 
"Our  master  was  so  pious  that  he  did  nothing  without  the 
advice  of  the  gods  ;  so  just  that  he  never  injured  any  one 
in  the  least ;  so  completely  master  of  himself  that  he 
never  choose  the  agreeable  instead  of  the  good  ;  so  dis- 
cerning that  he  never  failed  in  distinguishing  the  better 
from  the  worse  ;  in  short,  he  was  just  the  best  and  happi- 
est man  possible." 

HIS    GREATNESS. 

Is  this  the  overdrawn  tribute  of  affectionate  and  blind 
partiality?  Or  was  Doctor  Cook  a  truly  great  man  de- 
serving it  all  ?  We  think  he  was.  For  while  the  very 
simplicity  of  his  character  and  the  unostentatiousness  of 
his  spiric  might  cause  a  stranger  to  ask:  "Wherein  lies  his 
greatness?"  yet  to  us  who  were  familiar  with  the  sweep 
of  his  inventiveness  and  the  diversity  of  his  projects  and 
methods  he  was  always  revealing  new  elements  of  a  great 
as  well  as  noble  soul.  The  twin  proverbs,  that  "  familiar- 
ity breeds  contempt,"  and  that  "no  man  is  a  hero  to  his 
valet,"  are  where  real  greatness  is  involved  as  stupid  as 
they  are  false.  If  a  man  be  a  hero  at  all,  he  is  a  hero  most 
of  all  to  those  who  know  him  best.  And  can  anyone  who 
knew  Doctor  Cook  well  deny  that  he  possessed  a  genius 
for  multiplying  the  beneficent  utilties  of  science  and  for 
enlarging  the  resources  of  human  happiness  !  When  it  is 
remembered  that  although  intensely  patriotic,  he  had  no 
taste  for  military  campaigns,  in  which  generals  purchase 
distinction  at  the  price  of  blood;  and  that  he  had  no 
abilities  for  popular  oratory  which  often  win  the  show 
without  the  substance  of  fame;  but  was  wholly  absorbed 
in  the  homelier  benefits  of  industrial   progress,  in  those 


49 

benign  arts  of  peace  whose  blessings  are  often  in  the  inverse 
ratio  to  their  lowliness  ;  and  yet  that  by  these  inconspicu- 
ous instrumentalities  he  somehow  managed  to  impress  his 
ideas — himself — upon  countless  multitudes  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  in  and  out  of  the  State,  so  that  his  prolific 
suggestions  for  bettering  the  condition  of  labor  and 
society  were  quoted  all  over  the  Union  and  translated 
into  foreign  languages  of  European  journals,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  he  bore  the  test  whilst  he  exercised  the 
prerogatives  of  a  great,  a  very  great,  leader  of  mankind. 
If  the  value  of  life  and  the  rank  of  renown  are  to  be 
measured  by  work  done,  then  the  great  survey  alone,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  all  else  he  did,  will  form  a  historic 
monument  to  Doctor  Cook's  genius  and  usefulness. 
Hence,  since  his  removal  from  earth,  the  remark  more  and 
more  often  comes  from  competent  and  impartial  judges, 
that  he  was  the  most  eminent  as  well  as  most  useful 
contemporary  citizen  in  New  Jersey.  Certainly  of  this 
citizen  it  may  be  remarked,  as  Victor  Cousin  said  of 
Sainte  Beuve,  "This  man  seems  not  so  much  a  limited 
person  as  an  impersonal  force,  a  diffusive,  persuasive  force." 
His  presence  filled  all  our  buildings  and  hovered  like  an 
atmosphere  over  the  campus.  We  came  into  contact  with 
him  at  so  many  points.  He  was  everywhere  and  doing 
everything.  And  when  the  grave  swallowed  up  this 
restless  force,  what  wide,  empty  spaces  were  left,  and 
alas  !  how  lonely  !  He  had  made  himself  so  necessary,  so 
delightful,  to  us  all,  that  each  of  us  dreamed  he  had  been 
the  most  intimate  with  him,  the  most  honored  with  his 
love  and  confidence,  and  had  therefore  suffered  the  deep- 
est personal  loss  by  his  sudden  taking  off.  The  startled 
outcry  of  David,  when  beholding  on  Gilboa's  heights  the 
beauty  of  Israel  prostrate,  seemed  to  be  our  individual 
lament:  "Ye  mountains  of  Gilboa,  let  there  be  no  dew, 
neither  let  there  be  rain  upon  you,  nor  fields  of  offering^. 
4 


50 

*  *  *  How  are  the  mighty  fallen  in  the  midst  of 
the  battle.  O  Jonathan,  thou  was  slain  in  thine  high 
places.  I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  Jonathan  ; 
very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto  me  ;  thy  love  to  me  was 
wonderful,  passing  the  love  of  women.  How  are  mighty 
fallen  and  the  weapons  of  war  perished  !  " 

Perished  ?  Is  then  our  friend  and  brother  dead  ?  Nay; 
are  not  we  rather  among  the  dead  and  he  among  the 
living?  Translated  to  yonder  pure  realm,  his  astonishing 
capacity  for  work  developed  under  difficulties  here  knows 
no  cessation  nor  impediment  to  success  there ;  his  fond- 
ness for  discovery,  the  most  unalloyed  source  of  happiness 
here,  mounts  upward  to  endless  gratification  there,  making 
his  blessedness  complete.  Nor  has  his  life,  though  trans- 
lated, vanished  altogether  from  these,  its  former  scenes 
and  companions.  For  just  as  the  rays  of  some  fair  and 
far-off  star  in  the  sky  continue  to  leap  across  infinite 
spaces  and  to  greet  the  denizens  of  this  earth  for  ages 
after  it  may  itself  have  been  extinguished,  so  the  in- 
fluences of  the  great  and  good  shine  on  after  the  mortal 
tabernacle  that  held  the  immortal  spirit  has  crumbled  into 
dust,  and  they  will  shine  on  forever  and  ever. 


LETTERS   OF   REGRET. 

The  following  letters  of  regret  were  received: 

New  Haven,  May  12th,  1890. 
President  Gates: 

My  Dear  Sir — Your  letter  of  the  7th  relating  to  the  commemora- 
tion exercises  with  reference  to  Professor  Cook,  has  been  received. 
His  death  was  to  me  the  loss  of  an  old  friend.  We  were  not  often 
together  in  our  work,  but  our  long  labors  have  been  for  a  common 
purpose,  and  with  mutual  interest  in  one  another's  results,  and  I 
have  always  found  my  esteem  for  him  increased  with  each  new 
contribution  of  his  to  science.  His  published  reports  were  always 
the  outcome  of  earnest  work  and  good  judgment,  devoid  of  all  self- 
seeking,  and  showed  the  broad  man  who  could  investigate  principles 
and  also  study  out  the  many  practical  applications  connected  with 
the  special  subjects  before  him,  and  owing  to  the  largeness  of  his 
heart  and  his  sense  of  duty  to  the  State  which  employed  him,  the 
latter  sometimes  seemed  to  give  him  the  greater  pleasure. 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  do  honor  to  such  a  man.  But,  on  account 
of  the  state  of  my  health,  I  regret  to  say  I  shall  not  be  able  to  be 
present  and  take  part  in  the  commemoration  exercises.  My  sympa- 
thy will  nevertheless  be  with  you. 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

JAMES   D.    DANA. 


New  York,  May  19th,  i8go. 
Professor  T.  S.  Doolittle,  Rutgers  College,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.r 
Dear  Sir — I  regret  to  say  that  the  expected  telegram  arrived 
this  morning,  and  unexpectedly  requires  me  to  start  in  a  few  hours,, 
thus  putting  beyond  my  power  the  fulfillment  of  my  promise.  All 
that  I  can  do  is  to  express  by  this  letter  in  hasty  outline  the  im- 
pression which  was   made   upon   me  by  the   labors  and  publications 


52 

of  my  friend,  and  which  I  should  have  been  glad  of  the  opportunitf 
to  utter  in  a  more  deliberate  way  and  a  worthier  form. 

The  leading  characteristic  of  Professor  Cook's  scientific  work 
was  conscientious  fidelity.  This  was  evinced  in  his  conduct  of  the 
New  Jersey  State  Geological  Survey  in  two  striking  particulars  : 

First — He  never  forgot  that  as  the  State  Geologist  he  was  the 
servant  of  the  State.  He  did  not  consider  himself  as  called  upon  or 
authorized  to  go  beyond  the  limits  set  by  the  expressed  will  of  the 
Legislature,  in  order  to  build  better  than  they  intended  who  had 
employed  him.  It  too  often  happens  that  scientific  men  in  public 
service  regard  the  grants  of  authority  and  money  which  they  secure 
as  so  many  "entering  wedges,"  by  the  use  of  which  they  may  gradu- 
ally lift  the  popular  representatives  to  a  higher  plane  of  wise  liber- 
ality. There  is,  in  my  judgment,  a  proper  and  praiseworthy  way  of 
accomplishing  such  an  education  of  public  sentiment.  But  I  am 
equally  convinced  that  it  is  not  the  way  sometimes  pursued,  of  con- 
cealing ultimate  purposes,  and  of  inaugurating  expensive  schemes 
for  which  no  provision  has  been  made.  The  true  policy,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  to  do  the  simpler  duty  first  prescribed  with  such  conspicuous 
economy  and  intelligence,  and  make  the  usefulness  of  its  results  so 
■clear  to  all,  as  to  inspire  among  laymen  a  confidence  both  in  the  value 
of  science  and  in  the  good  faith  of  its  representatives.  This,  at  all 
■events,  was  the  course  of  Professor  Cook.  It  is  a  noteworthy  pecul- 
iarity of  his  work  that  it  was  not  primarily  made  the  vehicle  of  new 
and  brilliant  theories,  or  of  any  personal  display.  Generalizations 
and  speculative  inquiries  were  put  in  the  back-ground  ;  and  those 
things  were  studied  and  described  which  could  be  made  most  imme- 
ifiiately  useful  to  the  citizens  of  New  Jersey.  The  mere  list  of  the 
most  valuable  and  notable  results  of  the  New  Jersey  survey,  given 
by  Professor  Smock  in  his  appreciative  biographical  notice  of  his 
former  chief,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  this  characteristic.  It  in- 
cludes the  differentiation  of  the  three  green  sand  and  marl  beds  and 
their  relations  to  the  betterment  of  the  soils;  the  geological  structure 
of  the  overlying  formations,  and  the  guide  to  abundant  supplies  of 
excellent  water  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State;  the  description  and 
accurate  survey  of  the  clay  beds,  and  their  value  as  sources  of  refrac- 
tory materials;  the  explanation  of  the  structure  of  the  magnetic  iron 
ore  beds,  and  the  methods  to  be  followed  in  locating  mines;  the  drain- 
age of  the  Pequest  and  Passaic  river  valleys;  the  surveys  of  the  water- 
sheds of  the  northern  part  of  the  State,  pointing  to  the  great  natural 
reservoirs  of  water  for  city  supplies;  and  the  topographic  maps,  un- 
surpassed in  their  accuracy  and  detail  of  delineation  of  the  surface 
features  of  the  whole  State. 

In  other  words,  as  an  oflScer  of  the  State,  Professor  Cook  deemed 


53 

it  his  duty  to  be  especially  an  economic  geologist,  and  to  elucidate  first 
of  all  the  relations,  in  his  appointed  field,  of  geology  to  mining,  agri- 
culture, draining  and  water-supply.  The  result  was  that  the  people 
of  New  Jersey  did  not  need  to  be  "educated  up"  to  the  point  of  feel- 
ing that  his  work  was  useful  to  them.  They  had  the  demonstration 
before  them. 

Second — But  he  was  not  a  man  to  seek  a  superficial  appearance  of 
usefulness  by  hasty  work.  If  his  sense  of  duty  led  him  to  follow  the 
investigations  which  promised  immediate  practical  return  to  those 
who  had  trusted  him  with  public  office  and  public  money,  it  also  bade 
him  serve  the  State  by  accurate  and  thorough  work.  And  thus  he 
earned  the  confidence  not  only  of  those  who  beheld  the  results  of  his 
labors,  but  of  those  likewise  who  were  competent  to  criticise  the  work 
itself.  Scientific  men  everywhere  trusted  his  observations.  He  was 
never  suspected  of  warping  or  overlooking  a  fact  in  the  interest  of  a 
theory,  or  even  of  going  into  the  field,  theory  in  hand,  to  observe  the 
facts  through  that  medium.  His  candor  and  caution  were  notorious. 
And  the  clear,  temperate,  deliberate  conclusions  at  which  he  ultimately 
arrived,  are  firmly  established  by  his  patience  and  care. 

It  is  worthy  of  emphatic  comment  also,  that  Professor  Cook  was 
not  given  to  controversy.  His  habitual  attitude  was  one  of  not  so 
much  "fighting  for  the  truth  "as  seeking  for  it.  Nor  can  I  recollect 
any  instance  in  which  he  spent  his  energy  in  vindicating  his  own 
originality,  priority  or  consistency.  He  let  his  work  speak  for  itself, 
And  left  his  reputation  to  the  unsolicited  recognition  of  his  fellow- 
workers.  The  universal  esteem  in  which  his  name  is  held  constitutes 
the  best  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  his  policy  in  this  respect. 

The  final  volumes  of  the  State  Survey,  though  not  completed  by 
his  hand,  will  be  everywhere  regarded  as  his  work.  Indeed,  it  seems 
almost  like  a  providential  concession  to  his  earnest  and  humble  abne- 
gation of  self  that  these  books  should  be  issued  after  his  death.  They 
will  be,  as  it  were,  a  monument,  founded,  raised  and  carved  by  him, 
to  which  we  supply  only  the  one  thing  which  he  forgot  to  add,  whea 
we  reverently  engrave  upon  the  blank  entablature  his  honored  and 

beloved  name. 

Yours  truly, 

R.  W.    RAYMOND. 


I 

r 


